Witness History
Witness History
The man who invented the Pill
Up next
July 14, 2022
10 minutes
Available for over a year
In 1951, in a lab in Mexico City, Austrian chemist Dr Carl Djerassi created a synthetic hormone from wild yams. It would go on to become the Pill's active ingredient.
Rachel Naylor brings together archive interviews with Dr Djerassi.
PHOTO: Carl Djerassi in 1992 (BBC Copyright)