Continued use of Implanon inserted following termination of pregnancy
M. Preston, H. Ribbans
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Lancashire Healthcare
Trust, Burnley General Hospital, Lancs, UK
Introduction: Since 1999, we have offered implanon for post
termination contraception. We were keen to determine the continuation rate of
implanon use to ensure that insertion at termination of pregnancy is acceptable
to women, as well as being cost effective.
Setting and methods: A dedicated family planning clinic in a district
general hospital, led by a consultant community gynaecologist, who was the only
trained implanon inserter within the district. This is a retrospective study. 58
women who had implanon inserted after termination of pregnancy from December
1999 until December 2002 were identified and their notes obtained and reviewed.
Women moving out of district were lost to follow up. The rest came back to the
family planning clinic for subsequent removal of the implanon for the reasons
outlined above.
Results: Until the end of 2003, 47 (81%) of the women continued to use
implanon for contraception. 11 (19%) of the women had the implant removed. The
time from insertion to removal in these women ranged from 2 weeks to 35 months
with an average of 15 months. There were no significant differences in the
demographics of the two groups.
Conclusions: There is a high continuation rate of implanon for
contraception when inserted post termination of pregnancy. Even within the group
of women who removed the implant, this was carried out on average 15 months
after insertion. Our study suggests that implanon is an acceptable contraceptive
post termination of pregnancy and its continuation rate shows that insertion is
a cost effective option.
