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In the 1950s, researchers traveled to Puerto Rico to test Enovid, the first birth control pill. Their work would help revolutionize reproductive healthcare, but the women who made this medical breakthrough possible were never fully informed of the risks they were taking.

In this episode of The Cadaver’s Lessons, we investigate the controversial Puerto Rico trials, where women experienced severe side effects, dozens dropped out, and three deaths went uninvestigated. Researchers dismissed many of their complaints as psychological, raising troubling questions about medical ethics, informed consent, and whose suffering gets taken seriously in the name of scientific progress.

We explore the island’s history of population control and sterilization, the circumstances that made Puerto Rico a testing ground, and the women who participated in hopes of gaining greater control over their reproductive lives. We also examine how the trials contributed to a medical revolution—and how later tragedies helped reshape the rules governing human experimentation.

📚 References

1. American Experience. The Puerto Rico Pill Trials. PBS.
2. American Experience. The Pill and Informed Consent. PBS.
3. History.com Editors. The birth control pill’s controversial history in Puerto Rico. HISTORY.
4. The Harvard Crimson. The Bitter Pill. September 28, 2017.
5. The Scientist. Birth of the Pill: 1956–1960.
6. Wikipedia contributors. Edris Rice-Wray Carson. Wikipedia.
7. Wikipedia contributors. Contraceptive trials in Puerto Rico. Wikipedia.
8. The Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Enovid: First Hormonal Birth Control Pill, 1957–1988. Arizona State University.
9. Facts and ideas from anywhere.. National Library of Medicine.