One of the earlier breakthroughs in fertility treatment was the development of the drug Pergonal in the 1940s, which contained hormones that stimulate ovulation. Most women produce their own follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) all their lives, but during pregnancy and after menopause, the hormones are no longer utilized and are excreted in urine. The amount of FSH and LH in the urine is an indicator of pregnancy, and led to the development of at-home pregnancy tests.
The Italian pharmaceutical company Istituto Farmacologico Serono that developed Pergonal had trouble getting enough of these hormones to test the drug, much less run clinical trials for fertility treatment. But the Vatican owned the majority of the company, so the pope okayed a plan to collect urine from post-menopausal nuns at retirement convents. When 30,000 liters were collected, they had just enough hormones for Pergonal to go to clinical trials. The drug was used for several decades until synthetic hormones were developed. Ironically, the use of Pergonal was crucial in developing IVF treatments, which the Vatican opposes. Read about the nuns' urine and the hormones it contained at Amusing Planet.
(Image credit: Toni Frissell)
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