NORFOLK, Va. — Doctor Georgeanna Seegar Jones broke barriers with a lifetime of achievements.
Jones was a pioneer in reproductive medicine and endocrinology. She was born on July 6, 1912, in Baltimore, Maryland. She gained an early interest in medicine from her obstetrician father.
Jones attended John Hopkins University, studying to become a doctor herself. During her residency, she discovered that the common pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin or HCG comes from the placenta and not the pituitary gland as previously thought.
The discovery led to the HCG pregnancy test which is still on the market to this day.
Doctor Seegar Jones is also credited for being the first to identify a pattern during the menstrual cycle where women were more prone to miscarriages. By using progesterone as treatment the condition significantly improved, allowing many women to deliver healthy babies.
Later in her career, Dr. Seegar Jones joined Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) where she and her husband helped develop an in vitro fertilization program that successfully birthed the first IVF baby.
Jones passed away in 2005 in Portsmouth, but her legacy and discoveries still impact the world today.