Sex in the laboratory: the Family Planning Association and contraceptive science in Britain, 1929–1959

Abstract

Scientific and medical contraceptive standards are commonly believed to have begun with the advent of the oral contraceptive pill in the late 1950s. This article explains that in Britain contraceptive standards were imagined and implemented at least two decades earlier by the Family Planning Association, which sought to legitimize contraceptive methods, practice and provision through the foundation of the field of contraceptive science. This article charts the origins of the field, investigating the three methods the association devised and employed to achieve its goal of effecting contraceptive regulation. This was through the development of standardized methods to assess spermicidal efficacy; the establishment of quality, strength and manufacturing standards for rubber prophylactics; and the institution of animal trials to ensure the safety of specific contraceptives. The association publicized the results of its scientific testing on proprietary contraceptives in its annual Approved List of contraceptives. This provided doctors and chemists with a definitive register of safe and effective methods to prescribe.

Introduction

“…For instance, it supported the work of the Oxford zoologist and eugenicist John Baker on the spermicidal effectiveness of a variety of chemicals. 78 Recent work concentrating on the BCIC has highlighted the prominent role of male scientists in the development and testing of chemical contraception, and in the short-lived distinction the BCIC drew between pure science (the knowledge produced in the laboratory) and applied research (the research confined within clinic and separated from the laboratory) 79 . The book shows that women doctors blurred this distinction between pure and applied research since they liaised between laboratory and patients' needs and conducted clinical trials within birth control clinics.…”