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The limitation of rapid population growth has been a part of the government policy in most developing countries. In Korea, the National Family Planning Programme was inagurated as a national policy in the early 1960s. Many contraceptive methods are available for those who wish to practice family planning. Most of them involve some interference with the normal pattern of sexual life or are not completely effective. Others, such as vasectomy and tubal ligation, are not completely reversible. The possibility of hormonal contraception was suggested in the early twentieth centry, but only became a reality in the late 1950s in the development of oral contraceptives. During the 1960s, oral contraceptives spread widely throughout the world. Recently varieties of steroidal contraceptives have been developed and their use has increased. Oral contraceptives have overcome the objections voiced in regard to intrauterine contraceptive device or traditional methods because of their high degree of effectiveness, the easy of using them, their reversibility, and the lack of interference with sexual activities. In 1968 oral contraceptives became available as a part of the national family planning program and they have recently been one of the most frequently acceped methods of contraception in Korea. Oral contraceptive pills have been used in the Family Planning Clinic of Yonsei University since 1963, when it was conducting the first trials for the method in Korea. Various kinds of oral contraceptives have been used over the past 10 years in this clinic and many clinical and experimental studies have been conducted with the steroidal contraceptives. This paper is summary of the acceptance and effectiveness of oral contraceptives for the past 9 years, from 1963 to 1971.
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