GynoFiles

Long acting reversible contraception(LARC)  is effective and cost effective because women can use it for a long time, however side effects like bleeding can make a woman give up years before the contraceptive expires. LARC is a term that is applied to any method that is designed to be used for a long time: IUDs, DepoProvera, or the Nexplanon are what is usually (in the US) refered to as LARC. However, if you discontinue the LARC we may say you have now made it into "Short-acting reversible contraception or 'SARC." The Nexplanon implantable rod is designed to be used over 3 years. Patient contraindications for Nexplanon are similar to the contraindications for other progestin methods of contraception. Specifically you should not be pregnant, have a clot or clotting disease, have disease of the liver, or breast cancer. If a woman has irregular bleeding, it should be diagnosed and treated before getting the device. Those contraindications aside it is a terrific method for...

Long acting contraceptive ( LARC ) methods are staying in the news, and both the best and now, the e newest, contraception available for women. The CDC states that Nexplanon contraceptive is the best contraceptive with the fewest failures. The Newest contraceptive is an IUD which was approved yesterday  by U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The new IUD is called Liletta , it is a levonorgestrel-releasing IUD (as are Mirena and Skyla ). The approval was based on the data in the largest hormonal IUD trial, ACCESS IUS, conducted in the U.S. with 1,751 enrolled women receiving the device. It, like Skyla is a 3 year device, Mirena IUD is approved for 5 years of use in the US and 7 in Europe. There are no restrictions based on body weight. Although Liletta IUD is already approved, it is not available in the US quite yet, and may take a couple months to get to your gyno. There is a new organization that offers support services for contraception. Bedsider.org women may find helpfu...

Long term contraception is better at what the name implies: preventing pregnancy. Once you have an implant, you don’t have to remember or repeat or re-do anything. It is there and it works, and it works very well. The implants contain no estrogen, and within the first 8 hours of use they begin to leak enough medication that a woman gets a blood level of the progesterone etonogestrel for her to be protected against ovulation. The rate that the Implanon implant, the currently available single rod (or it’s slightly newer sister Nexplanon which has identical hormone) leaks hormone is about 60 mcg/day when it’s first inserted. This is only a bit less than the 85 mcg of the progesterone leaked by the old 6 rod Norplant system. It’s best then to think about the reasons that some women may not be able to use the contraceptive implant. Absolute contraindications to getting a contraceptive implant like Implanon or Nexplanon include an active case of blood clots, undiagnosed abnormal bleeding, ...

Is the contraception revolution is back? We can think back to the start of the revolution. Russell E. Marker, one of the five principal founders of oral contraceptives, worked on the problem of making cheap progesterone. At the time of his research at Pennsylvania State University in 1935, it required 2500 pregnant pigs to produce 1 mg of progesterone. He then discovered that Beth’s root in North Carolina, then a popular herbal remedy for menstrual pains, also a species of Trillium the wild Mexican Yam, contained a plant steroid disogenin that could be manufactured into progesterone. The first birth control pill that was approved in the United States was Enovid-10® in 1960. By 1988 63 million women were using oral contraceptives worldwide. So how far have we come exactly? In the 1950s we had five methods of contraception that were used in the US these were condoms, douches, withdrawal, rhythm and diaphragms. Generally, not very effective. Fifty years later the top five methods are ...