Why do they call birth control "THE PILL"?

Question

How and when did that nomenclature start?

Answer 1

Today we have become a pill popping society, so it seems odd to refer to just one pill as THE pill, but when the birth control pill was introduced, we took pills only when we needed them or when we got old. At that time it was still a huge no-no to mention anything about birth control in public or polite company, as we were expected to all remain virgins until we married and know nothing about s*x. Ha, ha, yeah, right. Women, of course, were indeed talking allllllll about it, and we whispered when we had to, but talk we did, hence it was shortened to jsimply "The Pill" . It was called so because it was most likely the only prescription they were taking. No one had to ask "which pill?" EVERYBODY knew exactly what you meant if you said something about The Pill. The only other pills people took tended to be recreational drugs.  

Answer 2

The first birth control pills were referred to as The Pill. This started when the pills were first made. The original pills were first made available to the public in 1960. The pills started being called The Pill in 1960.

Wikipedia has a fairly good article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_or...

Answer 3

Because the first major birth control they had is  A PILL!!!! hence the name.

Answer 4

"The pill" only refers to oral contraceptives and is just a euphemistic expression.

There are several varieties of birth control, including Depo Provera, Norplant, condoms, diaphragms, cervical caps, and sterlization.

Answer 5

The contraceptive known as "the pill" was invented in the late fifties, in age where married couples weren't even allowed to be shown in the bed together. Many words were unceremoniously censored as the "rock and roll" age was ushered in: clinical terminology of male and female private parts outside of a doctor's office was also considered taboo, not to mention talking about s*x openly.

Answer 6

It was the PC way of referring to birth control.  

Answer 7

Birth Control is not 'The pill'. It is a variety of means in order to stop unwanted pregnancies whilst still enjoying s*x.

The so-called 'Birth Pill' was introduced around 1960 as an oral tablet that contained estrogen and phoestregen as a way of 'fooling' the female body into thinking it was already pregnant (these substances occur naturally in pregnant women) and thus preventing fertilisation. The tablets, or pills, were taken orally, one a day for 21 days when the period would occur. Seven days late the cycles started again.

There are many other methods of birth control other than the pill such as condoms, the coil, Dutch Cap, vasectomies and sterilisation.