Barbara Seaman, Women's Reproductive Health Advocate, Dies at 72

NY Times: Barbara Seaman, 72, Dies; Cited Risks of the Pill, by Margarlit Fox:

Barbara Seaman, a writer and patients’ rights advocate who was one of the first people to bring the issue of women’s reproductive health to wide public attention, died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 72.

The cause was lung cancer, her family said.

Ms. Seaman’s first book, “The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill” (P. H. Wyden), was considered groundbreaking when it was published in 1969. It argued that oral contraceptives, which then contained high doses of estrogen, posed serious, possibly fatal, health risks, and that doctors routinely failed to inform women of those risks. Among the risks Ms. Seaman listed were heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, cancer and suicidal depression.

“The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill” was credited with inspiring a generation of women, who had long been discouraged by male doctors from asking too many questions, to take control of their health care. It was also credited with helping bring about Senate hearings in 1970, led by Gaylord Nelson, Democrat of Wisconsin, on the safety of oral contraceptives.

As a result of the hearings, birth control pills were required to carry a printed warning that discussed risks in general and clotting disorders in particular. These days, the pill contains far less estrogen than in the past.

Our Bodies Our Blog has a post remembering Seaman.