Research, introduction, and use: advancing from Norplant

As the first real contraceptive innovation in over 20 years, and as a long-acting method requiring clinical intervention for insertion and removal, Norplant raised an especially wide range of issues. It also encountered a number of difficulties. In April 1997, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) workshop on implant contraceptives reviewed newly available data on Norplant's efficacy, safety, and use; considered lessons learned from the method's development, introduction, and market experience; and explored approaches based on those lessons that could improve the environment for contraceptive research and development and make market entry for new contraceptive technologies less troubled. In addition to presenting the IOM workshop findings, the present article calls attention to the rich scientific prospects available for development of the next generation of contraceptives, and notes signs of an evolving new paradigm, essential if those prospects are to be realized to any significant extent.