"Since preventing ovulation prevents pregnancy, one could employ the same principles in birth control as in preventing dysmenorrhea [painful menstruation] Thus, for example, if an individual took 1 mg. of diethylstilbestrol [a synthetic estrogen] by mouth daily from the first day of her period for the next six weeks, she would not ovulate during this interval. A hormone regiment would have to be worked out that allowed periodic menstruation, but the medication could be administered to make the menstrual period come on the least undesirable day. Such manipulation of one’s menstrual rhythm is probably not to be advocated indiscriminately, but there is no evidence at the present time to suggest that the individual will not return to her pre therapeutic rhythm on cessation of therapy. By the 1950s both endocrinology and steroid chemistry had advanced far enough so that a hormonal contraceptive was possible. The initiative for a major effort to develop a physiological contraceptive did not come from scientists or physicians, however, but from laywomen. And the scientist that they chose to realize their hopes for better birth control was a refugee from academic biology."