Lazar C. Margulies
Lazar C. Margulies (1895-1982) was a physician who specialized in obstetrics and gynecology. He is best known for developing a type of safe Intrauterine device (IUD) made of plastic.
Biography
Margulies was born in Galacia, which later became part of Poland.[1] He served in the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I in their medical corps.[2] Marguilies completed his studies at the University of Vienna in 1921.[1] He worked in Vienna from 1929 until 1938.[2] Later, as the Nazi movement spread, he was "expelled from the hospital" because he was Jewish.[1] He fled to Britain in 1940.[2] In 1941 he emigrated to the United States where he settled in New York City.[1] Marguilies started working at Mount Sinai Medical Center in 1954.[1]
Margulies was working in the obstetrics department of Mount Sinai in 1958 when he suggested his idea for a new IUD to the head of the department, Alan F. Guttmacher.[3] Margulies has successfully used IUDs in Berlin.[4] Guttmacher approved Margulies' idea to create a safer type of IUD using plastic.[3] Margulies developed a spiral-shaped IUD in 1960.[1] It was made of thermoplastic and introduced in a thin tube and then "expelled with a plastic plunger."[1] After it was expelled, the plastic IUD retained its shape inside the uterus.[4] The method of insertion Margulies developed meant that a woman's cervix did not have to be dilated for the insertion to take place.[4] Margulies' method solved many problems inherent in metallic IUDs.[5] Guttmacher allowed Margulies to do clinical trials which were successful.[4] Margulies presented the clinical results and demonstrated the plastic IUD at the first international symposium on IUDs in New York in 1962.[6] His invention was patented in 1965 and assigned to Mount Sinai by Margulies.[2][7]
Margulies died in 1982 of a cerebral hemorrhage[1] in Manhattan.[2]
References
Citations
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Thiery 1997, p. 6.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Dr. Lazar Margulies, 87, Surgeon". The New York Times. 10 March 1982. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- 1 2 Bullough, Vern L.; Bullough, Bonnie, eds. (1994). Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 313. ISBN 9781135825027.
- 1 2 3 4 Reed, James (1984). The Birth Control Movement and American Society: From Private Vice to Public Virtue. Princeton University Press. p. 306. ISBN 9781400856596.
- ↑ Thiery 1997, p. 9.
- ↑ Thiery 1997, p. 4.
- ↑ Margulies, Lazar (17 August 1965). "Coil Spring Intra-Uterine Contraceptive Device and Method of Using" (PDF). Free Patents Online. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
Sources
- Thiery, M. (March 1997). "Pioneers of the Intrauterine Device" (PDF). The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care. The Parthenon Publishing Group. 2 (1). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2006. Retrieved 24 March 2016.