Living comfort at 1 year after placement of subcutaneous etonogestrel

Living comfort at 1 year after placement of subcutaneous etonogestrel

G. Donders, I. Riphagen, T. Van den Bosch

Department of Gynecology, Algemeen Ziekenhuis Tienen, Belgium

The etonogestrel implant contraceptive device (Implanon) was placed in the

upper arm of 188 women in 2001 at the outpatient gynecology clinic of the

general hospital of Tienen, Belgium. Patients were asked to fill out a

questionnaire at placement and again at one year after placement.

Discontinuation of the method was seen in 18%. The main reason of

discontinuation was excessive or irregular vaginal bleeding. Questions about

living comfort in the 145 users returning their questionnaire after one year

showed an increased risk of androgenic side effects and fatigue. On the other

hand, migraine was 16 times less frequent in users (OR 0.06 (0.018–0.21)

p<0.0001), but not other types of headache (Table 1). We conclude that Implanon has disadvantages of irregular bleeding and androgenic side effects, but has a significant improvement on migraines.