Advances in contraception : the official journal of the Society for the Advancement of Contraception最新文献

Five hundred and eighteen Norplant acceptors (260 ever-users and 258 current users) were interviewed to assess their perceptions about Norplant. The mean age of the acceptors was 32.6+/-5.7 years (mean +/- SD). The mean parity was 4.3 and many of the users (40.2%) were illiterate. The most common reason to choose Norplant was its long duration of action (70.1%) followed by doctor's advice (10.4%) and use by other women (10.1%). Norplant was recommended by family planning workers in 35.3% cases, doctors in 29.2% cases and friends in 17.4% cases. Advertisement did not play any role in the women's choice of Norplant. In 77.3% cases, the decision to use Norplant was a joint decision. Only 15% of the users had fears/anxieties before insertion. Most of these women (44%) were concerned about possible ill-effects of Norplant on their health rather than efficacy. The social acceptance of Norplant was very high (76%) and more than half of the users (52.5%) were satisfied with the method. Among current users, 83.9% wanted to continue Norplant for 5 years. Only 39 users (15.1%) intended to discontinue. The main reason for discontinuation was menstrual disturbance (69.2%), followed by weight gain (12.7%). The study suggests that long duration of effective action and high social acceptance are likely to make Norplant a popular method among Pakistani women.

Despite the recent improvements in services and an increase in available funds, the expected increase in usage of effective contraceptive methods and decrease in number of induced abortions has not been seen in Turkey. This study investigates the causes of this situation and argues whether induced abortion is being used as a birth control method. Eight-five subjects were involved in the study, all of whom came to a family planning clinic for an induced abortion. Forty-seven (55.29%) of the participants had had at least one induced abortion prior to this. Eight-four (98.8%) had knowledge of at least one contraceptive method, and 80 (94.1%) had knowledge of at least one effective contraceptive method. Eighty (94.1%) participants had used some form of contraception at some time in their lives; 52 (61.17%) had used an effective contraceptive method at some time in their lives. When they became pregnant, 60 (70.6%) were using ineffective methods or were not using any contraceptive method. Both the participant and the spouse wanted the abortion in 68 (80%) cases.

In order to acquire more knowledge of the performance of copper-bearing intrauterine devices (Cu-IUDs), corrosion behavior of copper in a simulated uterine fluid was investigated in the presence of proteins. The proteins studied included serum albumin, gamma-globulin and hemoglobin. Electrochemical polarization resistance measurements indicated that, in all cases under study, the corrosion rate of copper declined with time and the proteins always increased the rate. Moreover, different kinds of protein showed different dependence of copper corrosion rate on protein level. Addition of serum albumin initially raised the copper corrosion rate; however, the higher albumin concentration resulted in less promotion of the corrosion. X-ray diffraction (XRD) of the specimen surface showed that, both in the presence and absence of serum albumin, cuprous oxide was the only corrosion product, even though at higher concentrations of albumin less cuprous oxide was formed. This implies that serum albumin does not alter the corrosion mechanism. Electrochemical cathodic reduction of the oxide film and chemical analysis of solution after corrosion testing proved that the proportion of soluble ionic copper in the whole corrosion products varied with the albumin level. The copper corrosion rate in the presence of gamma-globulin or hemoglobin increased monotonically with increasing concentration of the protein. These three proteins shifted the corrosion potential of copper towards negative. It could be inferred that the proteins accelerated the anodic dissolution process of copper and hence enhanced its corrosion.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy, side-effects and acceptability of the Multiload Cu 375SL (MLCu 375SL IUD) used as emergency contraception (EC).

Method: Women who requested EC had a MLCu 375SL IUD inserted within 5 days after unprotected intercourse.

Results: Data from 515 subjects who completed the follow-up visits were analyzed. The majority were parous women (428, 83.1%). Most of the nulliparous women, 70 out of 87 (80.5%), had had a previous abortion. The efficacy rate was 92.40%. Two pregnancies were detected at the follow-up visits. One of them was considered to be a user failure. There were no failures in insertion procedure or no pelvic infections in either group. The common complaints were pain and bleeding. The removal rate in the nulliparous group (14.9%) was significantly higher than in the parous group (3.5%).

Conclusions: Insertion of a MLCu 375SL IUD within 5 days after unprotected intercourse provides an alternative emergency contraceptive method. It is more acceptable to parous women who plan to continue practicing contraception. It is important to provide careful counselling to clients and to emphasize that the insertion of the IUD must be within 5 days after unprotected intercourse in order to reduce the potential risk of pregnancy.

Prospectively collected cycles of 207 women were used to find out the efficacy of the Cyclotest 2 plus algorithm in detecting the fertile time in a woman's cycle. The results of the device were compared with the beginning and the end of the fertile time identified by the symptothermal method (STM) of natural family planning (NFP). It was found that the algorithm led to dangerous reduction of the fertile time (FT) in only 2 out of 207 woman cycles (0.96%). However, at the end of fertile time (FE) the device requested more abstinence than was necessary in about 12% of the cycles. We feel that more research should be performed on detecting the end of the fertile time.

Unlabelled: Emergency contraception (EC) has recently become available, accepted and widely used in Sweden but little is known about the characteristics and background factors of women requesting EC.

Methods: During a four-month period, consecutive women (n = 762) visiting family planning clinics to request emergency contraception filled out a questionnaire about their current need for EC.

Results: The user of emergency contraception was typically a nulligravid young woman (83%) but 13% had a previous history of at least one induced abortion and 41% had given birth in the past. One out of four had used EC before, and of these 20% more than once. Condom breakage was the major reason for the current need for EC but as many as 37% had not discussed the need for contraception prior to intercourse. Friends were the most important source of knowledge about EC.

Conclusion: Women requesting emergency contraception could be anyone and emergency contraception is used to compensate for contraceptive failure in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

This study was aimed to evaluate weight variation in 3183 women using the injectable contraceptive Cyclofem. All women were allocated to groups according to their weight at admission. The weight gain was inversely proportional to the weight at admission. The groups of women weighing less than 50 kg at admission, experienced a higher increase, 2.8% in four months, and they continued gaining weight, reaching 7.7% in 13 months. Women weighing more than 64 kg at admission did not present any weight change in 4 months and increased only 1.7% at 13 months. When women were classifed as discontinuers due to weight increase, discontinuers due to other reasons, and continuers, at four months, the differences in the mean weight between the groups was statistically significant only in the groups weighing 55 kg or more at admission. At 13 months, the results were similar and the differences were statistically significant only in the groups weighing 55-59 kg and 60-64 kg. Discontinuation rates due to weight increase were proportional to the weight at admission. This rate was almost three times higher in the group of women weighing more than 64 kg at admission than in the group weighing less than 55 kg (p<0.001). In conclusion, considering the data presented in this study, it is impossible to recommend health providers to inform women who choose Cyclofem as their contraceptive method, that this method may increase their weight throughout its use.

Thirty married couples evaluated the Reality female condom on questionnaires about its acceptability for 300 acts of coitus (10 per couple). An analysis of the summary questionnaires showed: 90% of couples considered the female condom an acceptable method and 87% felt it was a good contraceptive device; the majority of couples (87%) found it easy to use; and 80% of females and 73% of males reported that, in comparison with the male condom, the effect on sexual pleasure was either improved or no different. A little more than half of the couples (55%) preferred it to male condoms. To look at the learning curve effect, an additional analysis was completed by pooling the first 5 applications of each user and comparing the results with the pooled results of the second 5 uses. All the findings suggest that a certain proportion of couples of childbearing age will choose the Reality female condom for contraception if it enters into the Chinese market. As a new contraceptive barrier device, the female condom may require a certain amount of education and awareness before it will be fully recognized as an important option to help prevent pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted infections.