Professor Egon Diczfalusy, a pioneer in gynaecological endocrinology and in particular female contraception, celebrated his 80th birthday with a scientific symposium. The participants were scientists from all over the world who had been scholars and close collaborators at different points in time. The interdisciplinary meeting consisted of lectures on the epidemiological impacts of ageing, its challenge for the pharmaceutical industry, philosophical aspects of the future of mankind, and the history and future of contraception. Three round table discussions addressed the hormonal control of...