Organon was, however, not satisfied with the broadened and unspecific applicability of female sex hormones. As late as 1932, Laqueur complained that a well-defined clinical picture for female sex hormone therapy was still lacking (Organon Archive 13 April 1932). Organon and Laqueur therefore initiated large scale clinical trials to investigate more thoroughly the therapeutic activity […]

The initial clinical trials in the early 1920s were mainly restricted to the treatment of menstrual disorders, in particular amenorrhea. By the late 1920s, female sex hormones were promoted for a substantially wider array of medical indications. This trend may have been facilitated by the marketing of Organon’s new product Menformon, a less expensive drug […]

How did the medical profession receive the introduction of female sex hormones as a new type of drug? The clinical reports published in the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde gave Organon’s female sex hormone therapy mixed reviews. The results of the clinical trials in the 1920s fell short of the high expectations that had accompanied the […]

Early expectations and clinical trials The marketing of female sex hormones was characterized by an atmosphere of high expectations. Ernst Laqueur described the joint venture of his laboratory and Organon as “the pursuit of the Goddess of Fortune” (E. Laqueur et al. 1927a). What kind of goddess were scientists seeking? What type of medicine did […]

Nowadays, Organon is one of the leading pharmaceutical firms in the market of hormonal drugs (Tausk 1978:35; Wolffers et al. 1989:32). This position dates from the 1920s, when the Dutch company gained a strong position in the industrial market as a major producer of female sex hormones, a position it held till the Second World […]

You don’t have to be a very keen observer to notice that today hormones are everywhere: not only in our language but also in hospitals, chemists’ shops, even in women’s dressing-cases. The introduction of the hormonal model of the body has been very successful, particularly for women. Women all over the world take hormonal pills […]

What was the impact of the making of sex hormones on the conceptualization of sex differences? To answer this question I have to highlight another function of research materials. Not only did the availability of research materials have an impact on the interrelationship between the groups involved in research on sex hormones, but also research […]

The success story of access to new sources for female sex hormones cannot be told about male sex hormones. Research on male sex hormones was far more constrained by the limited availability of organic material than was research on female sex hormones. In the early years, female gonads had been relatively easy for gynecologists to […]

Although the problem of gaining access to research materials had been solved, scientists continued searching for new sources. The main reason for this was the enormous expense of gonadal material.5 Scientists working on female sex hormones were eager to find sources less expensive than cows’ ovaries. Horse ovaries happened to be less expensive than cows’ […]

The creation of networks between scientists and pharmaceutical companies was of central importance to research on sex hormones. The data suggest that those scientists who had succeeded in making arrangements with pharmaceutical industries formed the leading research groups in the new study of sex hormones. All three of the research groups that first isolated a […]