We’ve come a long way, baby. But there’s more work to be done.
I’ve seen first-hand the profound changes in women’s lives that have come about since I came of age in the 1960s.
My mother’s entire life was constrained by her gender. Like so many others of her generation, she was married and a mother at an early age. Widowed at age 20 in the depths of the Great Depression, struggling to support herself and her child, this brilliant woman lived a life of fear and uncertainty.
Contrast my mother’s life with that of my 24-year-old daughter, a published author and PhD student who studied in Africa and taught school in Asia. Like so many in her generation, she sees no limitations to her future and fully expects a fulfilling career and family.
But how did this evolution come about?
It wasn’t getting the vote. It wasn’t access to education. No, it was birth control that made all the difference in women’s lives.
In 1960, the first oral contraceptive was approved by the FDA. The Pill meant that for the first time in history, women were in control of their reproductive systems and therefore their future.
What followed was a technology revolution in birth control, with many other temporary methods becoming available: diaphragms, the sponge and IUDs. Next came birth control that reduced or eliminated exposure to artificial hormones, like the ring and patch.
But what about women who had completed their families? They didn’t want to worry at all about unplanned pregnancy. At the same time, they rejected the inconvenience of temporary birth control and unnecessary exposure to hormones.
Tubal ligation addressed some of those concerns. Because it was a surgery, however, it required general anesthesia and carried risks such as infection. Plus patients needed several days of recovery—not exactly ideal for wives and mothers moving into the workforce.
At the time I was asked to become the first President and Chief Executive Officer of Conceptus, I was already yearning to play a role in improving reproductive health options for women. Our team patented and tested dozens of technologies for blocking the fallopian tubes. But one—which later became the Essure insert—stood out above the rest.
We were convinced that Essure, which eliminated the need for cutting and general anesthesia associated with tubal ligation, would have a huge impact on women’s birth control. Sure enough, since receiving FDA approval in the U.S. in 2002, Essure has become the standard of care for many health care organizations and professionals.
The benefits are unmistakable. Essure is performed in the comfort of a doctor’s office in less than 10 minutes, with no slowing down to recover. It’s hormone free. And with only 1.6 pregnancies per thousand women based on four years of clinical data, Essure is the most effective permanent control available.
Not surprisingly, women have responded. This year, the number of women who have had the Essure procedure reached half a million.
We owe it to our daughters to continue increasing access to improved birth control for all women. And we owe it to our daughters’ daughters to continue to innovate in this field of women’s health.
