Djerassi, now 91, predicted that women in their 20s would use IVF to delay pregnancy without worrying about their biological clocks by 2050, telling the Telegraph:
Over the next few decades, say by the year 2050, more IVF fertilisations will occur among fertile women than the current five million fertility-impaired ones. For them the separation between sex and reproduction will be 100 per cent.In 1951, Djerassi led work to produce the world’s first synthetic version of progesterone – a steroid hormone pumped out by the body to maintain pregnancy – that could be taken orally. The final product, norethisterone, was used in the first successful combined contraceptive pill released in 1961, credited with starting a global wave of sexual liberation.
Additional reporting: Independent journalists