Implant aims to stop pregnancy

By PISAI GUMAR
AN implant under the arm will prevent pregnancy in a woman for up to five years, according to the Marie Stopes International charity organisation.
The implant, which is an inch of clear sino-plant plastic chip, contains progesterone.
Visiting specialist Dr Anna Colwell said the hormones then stimulate a woman’s uterus and regulate her body and cells to meet male sperms but will not develop a foetus.
The organisation focuses mainly on helping women from rural areas who have little access to health care and family planning.
It takes between 15 and 20 minutes to insert the sino-plant under the arm and is effective for up to five years. It can be removed at any time before then.
Dr Colwell, Sr Agnes Monts, nursing officer Sam Albert, health extension officer Helen Palik and centre assistant Janet Jeff conducted the operation on a woman last Friday.
Last Friday, eight women from Nasua village in Umi-Atzera, Markham district and two MSI staff members at the centre located at the YWCA building near Admin Compound, Eriku, received the implants after being given lessons the day before.
“The method had worked in 44 countries in the last 40 years but was only introduced in Papua New Guinea in September this year,” Colwell said.
Other family planning methods include depo-provera, pills, male and female condoms for short-term, intra-uterine device, emergency contraceptive pills and implant for medium-term, vasectomy and tubaligation for permanent end, Palik said.
The organisation also provides anti-natal care, pregnancy test, ultra-sound scanning, STI-HIV
test and treatment, outreach to communities, men, women and youth clinics.