This Man's Pill is published in the year that marks the 50th birthday of the oral contraceptive pill. The book is less about the pill than about the man, Carl Djerassi, the chemist responsible for synthe-sising the first orally active progestogen-norethindrone. Born in Vienna but educated in the United States, at the age of 25 Djerassi was recruited by the pharmaceutical company Syntex to devise a practical method of synthesising cortisone from the Mexican yam. In October 1951 Djerassi and Syntex completed synthesis of norethindrone, later to become the active component of the pill. Just as the pill had major effects on society, his own "maternal role" in the birth of the pill had a monumental effect on Djerassi, changing him from a "hard scientist" to someone concerned with the social consequences of scientific developments.
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