ETHINYLESTRADIOL · It Started as an Impurity — Oversized Drop-Shoulder

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TEE-MED-FA-ETI-01-M-BK T-Shirt

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ETHINYLESTRADIOL · It Started as an Impurity Oversized Drop-Shoulder T-Shirt

$ 2,345.00

Description

Synthesised in 1938, ethinylestradiol reached the first pill without anyone putting it there: it was a manufacturing impurity of the other component, and when the batch was purified it stopped working. Printed here is the triple bond without which the liver would destroy it in a single pass.

A Author

Etinilestradiol

B Subject

Endocrinology

C Aesthetic

Diagram · Typographic

Exploration

Estradiol taken by mouth does not arrive. It is absorbed in the gut, enters through the portal vein, and the liver deactivates it in a single pass, before it reaches the general circulation.

The triple bond hanging off carbon 17 is a physical obstruction for the enzyme that would do that job. With it, the molecule crosses the liver almost intact and lasts hours in the blood instead of minutes.

That is why a dose is measured in micrograms. The first pills carried ten times more than what is now considered necessary.

The contraceptive effect is not there: the other component stops ovulation. The oestrogen holds up the endometrium so that there is no continuous bleeding.

It slipped into the preparation without anyone putting it in. When the batch was cleaned up, the pure product stopped working and the impurity had to be added back.

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