Contraceptives are an example of the many benefits of successful biomedical technologies, having transformed equal opportunities for women in developed societies. However, all existing pharmaceutical contraceptives act through hormone pathways leading to many undesirable side-effects and unnecessary risks. Our team is investigating non-hormonal methods to block ovulation, which would produce a more ideal contraceptive from efficacy, safety and acceptability considerations. We have developed high throughput phenotypic screening tools to survey small molecule libraries, integrated with genomics and proteomics data to identify vulnerable targets and tool compounds to block ovulation. The results have uncovered novel ovary specific signalling and tissue morphogenetic mechanisms that mediate ovarian follicle rupture and transport the oocyte out of the follicle, presenting non-hormonal targets for contraceptive development.