The Puerto Rico Pill Trial

Pincus and Rock had to trail people for the pill to get approved by the FDA. In the summer of 1955 they visited Puerto Rico and decide that this was the perfect place to do the human trail especially because it was very populated and poor. In Puerto Rico their was no anti-birth control law. 67 clinics started to distribute this pill in 1956 trails were filled very quickly so they started expanding the trails to different locations. Pincus initially started to put high dosages of Envoid then he discovered that this worked better with small amounts of synthetic estrogen so then that was added. In Perto Rico a man named Dr.Edris Rice-Way was in charge of the trials he discovered that the pill was 100% effective and also discovered that 17% of the women had headaches, nausea, dizziness, stomach pain and vomiting. Rice-Way told Pincus that the 10 milligram was to much dosage and cause too many side effects ,but Pincus and Rock didn't take in count the conclusion of Rice-Way because their patients in Boston had less sever side effects they also believed that the symptoms were psychosomatic. Their was a death of 3 women in this trail, but Pincus and Rock did not investigate if the pill was the cause of their death. Pincus and Rock were later accused of exploitation of poor women of color because the women were not told that it was a clinical trail or that the pill was experimental, they were only told that the pill was to prevent pregnancy. Many think that Pincus and Rock overlooked many serious side effects and the very high dosages of hormones.Now a days they have lowered the dosage of hormones in the birth control pill.