“Not just a statistic”: the history of USA and UK policy over thrombotic disease and the oral contraceptive pill, 1960s–1970s

Today it is estimated that over 100 million women worldwide have taken the oral contraceptive pill since 1956, when the first clinical trials were undertaken. Since its introduction on to the American market in 1960 and the British one in 1961, the pill has become one of the most popular contraceptives in both countries. Unlike other forms of drugs, which have primarily been formulated to prevent or cure illness, the oral contraceptive pill was designed to be given to healthy women over long periods of time, making the necessity for regulation and medical monitoring that much more pertinent. Focusing on the USA and Britain, this paper concentrates on the different ways in which each country has monitored and secured the safety of the pill between 1960 and 1970. While the British government decided to phase-out high dose oestrogen contraceptive pills associated with thrombotic disease in 1969, such pills continued to be available in the USA through to the 1980 s, with measures instead being directed towards supplying better information to patients about the possible side-effects of the pill. The paper explores the reasons for this difference in policy, showing how it was shaped by the particular research orientation of each country as well as the specific legal, medical, social and political traditions within Britain and the USA.