To improve counselling information to Nigerian family planning clients, we compared non-menstrual events reported by 248
Norplant users and 214 Uniplant users. Women using
Norplant were significantly older and of higher parity and greater
contraceptive experience than Uniplant users. Other admission characteristics of the two groups were similar. The total women-months of use of
Norplant was 2,946 (mean 11.9 +/- 0.6 SE) months while that for Uniplant was 2,315 (mean 10.8 +/- 0.2 SE) months. About 36% of
Norplant users and 15% of Uniplant users reported non-menstrual adverse events, the commonest ones being
pain/
itching at the insertion site, unexplained low
abdominal pains and clinically diagnosed
pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). The numbers of women reporting
drug-related adverse events were 61 (24.6%) and 23 (10.8%), respectively, among
Norplant and Uniplant users.
Drug-related serious adverse events were reported by 3 (1.2%)
Norplant users and 5 (2%) Uniplant users. The adverse events leading to Uniplant removal were severe
urticaria, breast lumps,
pruritus vulvae,
headache with raised blood pressure, adnexal pains and
ovarian cysts, and static weight while those leading to
Norplant removal were breast lump and
headache with raised blood pressure.
Weight gain was reported by only 7 (3%) of
Norplant users. Although of no serious clinical consequences,
drug-related adverse events should be added to the counselling information to prospective users.