Lazar C. Margulies

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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 Galicia, which later became part of Poland.[1] He served in the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I in their medical corps.[2] On 11 June 1919, while a student at University in Vienna, he married fellow medical student Rafaella Pomeranz; they had two children, Stephen (later Steven, born 28 April 1927) and Bibi (later Phoebe, born 30 December 1931). Margulies completed his studies at the University of Vienna in 1921.[1] Following this, he continued his training while working as a gynecologist and obstetrician.

Margulies worked in Vienna from 1929 until 1938.[2] Later, as the Nazi movement spread, because he was Jewish.[1] he was arrested as a political prisoner and held in Buchenwald as inmate number 20124 in Block 20. On 17 February 1939 he was put into the standard striped clothing worn by inmates and given a new number 5585. He was released from Buchenwald on 28 April 1939 after his family had made plans to emigrate to Great Britain.

Margulies fled to Britain in 1940.[2] In 1941 he emigrated to the United States where he settled in New York City.[1] Margulies 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. ^ a b c d e f g h Thiery 1997, p. 6.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Dr. Lazar Margulies, 87, Surgeon". The New York Times. 10 March 1982. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  3. ^ a b Bullough, Vern L.; Bullough, Bonnie, eds. (1994). Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 313. ISBN 9781135825027.
  4. ^ a b c d Reed, James (1984). The Birth Control Movement and American Society: From Private Vice to Public Virtue. Princeton University Press. p. 306. ISBN 9781400856596.
  5. ^ Thiery 1997, p. 9.
  6. ^ Thiery 1997, p. 4.
  7. ^ Margulies, Lazar (17 August 1965). "Coil Spring Intra-Uterine Contraceptive Device and Method of Using" (PDF). Free Patents Online. Retrieved 24 March 2016.

Sources

External links

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