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Norplant is essentially an old contraceptive in a new package. Developed by the Population Council, an international nonprofit research group, and Wyeth- Ayerst Laboratories, a division of American Home Products Corp. of Philadelphia, the method prevents pregnancy by using the hormone progestin, which with estrogen is the active ingredient in most birth-control pills. Norplant consists of six progestin-filled silicone tubes, each about the size of a matchstick. In a simple 15-minute procedure, a doctor inserts the tubes just beneath the skin in a woman's upper arm. Once in place, the tiny cylinders start releasing progestin into...
...method does have drawbacks. Progestin causes irregular menstrual bleeding in 75% of women who use it. Women may get their periods at odd intervals, such as 3 or 7 weeks apart, and some could miss one altogether. The periods themselves can also be longer, an average of 8 days of bleeding or spotting as opposed to the normal 5 days. These effects diminish after the first two years, according to the manufacturers. In addition, the cost, although less than that of oral contraceptives, will be considerable. Wyeth- Ayerst officials will not reveal the price until marketing begins in February...
Norplant's biggest advantage over other contraceptives is that it requires only one birth-control decision every five years. The method will be useful to young women who want to delay their first pregnancy and to older women who want a reversible alternative to sterilization, which is now the most common method of contraception...
...same advantages that recommend Norplant to many women also raise the specter of abuse. Some health experts fear that legislators and judges will try to use the method as a way of restricting the reproductive freedom of teenagers, drug users, convicted child abusers or even the mentally ill. Economist Isabel Sawhill at the Urban Institute, a Washington-based research organization, recently published a paper in which she suggested that all teenagers be encouraged to use Norplant at puberty. "The decision to have a child would become a conscious choice -- decoupled from the dictates of biology, hormones and peer pressure...
...higher than those they could command at home. In the role of contractors, importers, landlords and bankers, many Kuwaitis found themselves members of a privileged minority set above the expatriate work force. A law enacted in the late 1950s required foreign businessmen to take Kuwaiti partners, another risk-free method of wealth creation that made millionaires of many overnight...