Objective: Our purpose was to evaluate whether prolonged or irregular bleeding during Norplant implant use could be alleviated with the use of oral hormonal medication.
Study design: One hundred fifty users of the Norplant levonorgestrel contraceptive implant with prolonged or frequent bleeding were enrolled in this prospective, randomized, comparative study and assigned to one of three treatment groups for 20 days: ethinyl estradiol 50 microg, an oral contraceptive (50 microg ethinyl estradiol and 250 microg levonogestrel), and placebo. Total days of bleeding during treatment and length of the bleeding-free interval were analyzed.
Results: Women treated with the levonorgestrel-ethinyl estradiol pill bled an average of 2.6 days during treatment compared with 5.4 and 12.3 days in the ethinyl estradiol and placebo groups, respectively. Differences between both hormonal groups and placebo were significant (p <0.00001); moreover, the combined pill was more effective than ethinyl estradiol along (p <0.0001).
Conclusion: The combined pill proved to be an excellent palliative treatment and is a more practical approach because of availability at all clinic sites.
PIP: In the Dominican Republic, clinical researchers randomly assigned 150 users of the contraceptive implant Norplant who came to Profamilia's Family Planning Clinic in Santo Domingo complaining of bleeding irregularities to one of three treatment groups. They aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined oral contraceptive (OC) with 250 mcg levonorgestrel and 50 mcg ethinyl estradiol (EE) and of 50 mcg EE alone in treating bleeding irregularities. Bleeding irregularities were defined as prolonged bleeding (i.e., 8 or more continuous days of bleeding or spotting) or irregular bleeding (i.e., current bleeding episode initiated after a bleeding-free interval of less than 15 days). Age, parity, duration of Norplant use, and length of bleeding episode before treatment were similar in all three groups (i.e., OC, EE, and placebo). The OC group was significantly more likely to experience ceased bleeding within three days than the two other groups (91% vs. 67% for EE group [p 0.01 from OC group] and 15% for placebo group [p 0.0005 from both treatments]). Bleeding lasting for at least one week occurred less often in the OC group than the two other groups (2% vs. 14% for EE group and 50% for placebo group [p 0.0005 for both treatments]). Duration of bleeding was significantly lower in the OC group than the other two groups (2.6 days vs. 5.4 days for EE group and 12.3 days for placebo group; p 0.0001). Even though women in both hormonal treatment groups were more likely to experience gastralgia or nausea than the placebo group (33-40% vs. 4%; p 0.005), the side effects rarely interrupted treatment. These findings suggested that the OC is a very good effective treatment for bleeding irregularities and is a practical treatment since it is available at all Profamilia clinic sites.