Goodbye Norplant, Hello Implanon

By Genevieve Parker, posted at ContraceptionBlog.com

Greetings to all! First off, I'd like to thank the No Room for Contraception campaign for the cordial welcome as I begin my blogging efforts here. I really look forward to participating in this work!

So, I just thought I'd bring up a little media blurb on Science Daily about an implantable form of birth control - called Implanon - that has recently hit the U.S. and is currently being used in the Cincinatti area. According to Science Daily, this new birth control option works as follows:

"The implant is injected underneath the skin of the upper arm during an in-office procedure that takes about one minute. The implant, the size of a matchstick, releases a steady stream of the female hormone etonogestrel (Implanon) over a three-year period...Etonogestrel works by thickening the cervical mucus, which prevents sperm from fertilizing an egg and also stops any egg that does get fertilized from implanting itself in the uterine wall. Etonogestrel completely inhibits the release of eggs from the ovaries during the first two years. In the third year, it begins to lose its effectiveness."

Sooo, does this mean that women on this drug don't ovulate for the first two years ? (Sounds real healthy, eh?) Then, once ovulation begins to take place in the 3rd year, birth control is effected by inhibiting sperm or else causing early abortion.

What's going on here? Clearly, the purpose of the contraceptive is to prevent a woman's body from acting like a woman's body; in short, the intent is to cause the woman's body to act like a man's body. When that mechanism fails (and she begins to ovulate & possibly conceive a child) the "back-up" plan is early abortion. This is what happens when the fertilized egg (a.k.a. embryo/newly conceived child) is not allowed to attach from the uterine lining.

Hmmm, Implanon sounds a lot like Norplant, which also works by preventing ovulation with a secondary mechanism of preventing implantation. Incidentally, Norplant was taken off the market circa 2004 after more than 50,000 lawsuit claims were brought against its distributor for harmful side effects.

Why is it acceptable to put women at high risk for deleterious side effects all for the purpose of making her body function like a man's body?

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