Contraceptive Suitable For All Not Expected

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32265, 7 April 1970, Page 9

Contraceptive Suitable For All Not Expected

* Directors of some of *j America’s leading con's traception research ore ganisations forecast d that science would never ® find a contraceptive suiti able for all people. t t The comments were made r at a press conference where the Ford Foundation ans nounced grants totalling s Sl4m. for research to promote a better understanding , of the human reproductive ' processes. 1 Speakers at the conference ; described presept methods of ' contraception as unsatisfac--1 tory and warned that in the ; next 10 or 15 years there would be an “explosive” demand for birth control de- ; vices. Organisations receiving f grants included the Unis versity of Southern CaliI fornia, the Salk Institute of s Biological Studies, the Uni- ■ versity of Wisconsin, Harvard I University, and Kansas Unis versity. As well, grants were made . to the Universities of Syd- . ney, Puerto Rico, Geneva and > Chile, the Women’s Hospital • of Mexico, the Latin AmeriI can Association for Research > in Human Reproduction, and . the State Serum Institute . (Denmark). Speakers at the press con- , ference agreed with the state- , ment by Dr O. Harkavy, the ’ Ford Foundation’s officer in charge of population, that one , contraceptive perfect for all , people would never be found. “Each contraceptive de- ’ velopment will lead to ■ another one and progress will be continuous rather

than arriving at an ultimate birth-control device,” Dr Harkavy told reporters. “We all agree that there will never be a perfect contraceptive.” “In the next 10 or 15 years there will be an explosive demand for contraceptives as philosophical and religious barriers break down,” Dr Harkavy said. “By that time we must have a variety of birth-control devices that will be able to answer the individual needs of people,” he said.

The speakers described present birth-control methods like the pill as “highly effective” but subject to serious defects which limited: their usefulness. “Only a few additional methods are on the immediate horizon and the indications are that they may not meet the criteria required for successful contraceptive agents,” Dr Harkavy said. Sydney University received a grant of $208,158 for research in reproductive biology under the direction of Professor C. W. Emmens, chairman of the department of veterinary physiology.

The research covers four main areas—the endocrinology of reproduction, chemical synthesis of compounds that interfere with the action of steroid sex hormones—biochemistry of reproductive tract fluids—the metabolism of embryonic tissues and the nutritional requirements of the embryo before implantation.