Primodos

Common card · No. 479273

Primodos was a hormone-based pregnancy test, used in the 1960s and 1970s, which consisted of two pills that contained norethisterone (as acetate) and ethinylestradiol. It detected pregnancy by inducing menstruation in women who were not pregnant. The presence or absence of menstrual bleeding was then used to determine whether the user was pregnant. In South Korea it was also used, "perhaps as a double dose", to induce abortions. It was produced by Schering AG, a German company subsequently (in 2006) taken over by Bayer AG. While first made available for sale in the UK in 1959, it was withdrawn from sale in the UK in 1978. Another hormonal pregnancy test called Duogynon was in use in Germany during the same general time period.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Fvasconcellos, Public domain