Wrong statements published about implants for women

I refer to the article “Women forced to quit Implants” in The National (April 28, 2017) by an unknown reporter but which quotes Dr M Sapuri of Pacific International Hospital.
Reading this article I note there are many wrong statements in the article about implants, and indeed also about family planning in general.
For example, Dr Sapuri is quoted as saying that “family planning tablets and injections are just for six months”, and that “this results in unwanted pregnancies”.
In fact depo injections defer ovulation for three months, but women can take a repeat injection every three months for as many times as they need to continue contraception.
Pills of course only contain sufficient hormone medicine to defer ovulation for the day that you take it, and that is why one needs to take another pill every day for continuing contraception.   With regards Family Planning Implants, the Health department have certified that they are now part of the national family planning programme.
Implants can be used by young women, they can be used by breast feeding mothers and recently the World Health Organisation declared that research had shown that they could be safely used by women who had recently had a baby if other methods of contraception were not suitable.
Dr Sapuri is also reported as saying that health workers should counsel their clients properly about side-effects before acceding to a woman’s request for an Implant. We do this routinely.
But, in fact there are very few side-effects of implants.
I agree with Dr Sapuri that some women blame their implants for many spurious side-effects (just as some also blame depo and tubal ligation for things that these family planning methods do not cause); but the fact of the matter is that implants do not cause backaches, stomach pains, skin infections, nervousness, menstrual cramps (in fact they relieve menstrual cramps), vaginal irritation, itching or infections.
It is our job as health workers to listen to women’s complaints and help them work out what might be causing them; it is not sensible or helpful just to agree with people who ascribe spurious or untrue symptoms to Implants.
Family Planning Implants have been used safely and successfully by women all over the world for more than 20 years.
Since our government introduced them to PNG some five years ago, about 100,000 women have requested or accepted them as a personal family planning method. Only 5000 (or 5 per cent) have come to health workers requesting removal.
In fact, a recent study on Karkar Island in Madang and in Milne Bay we found that less than 2 per cent of rural women requested removal of their implants within the first year of insertion.
Lastly, Dr Sapuri should know that the National Family Planning policy that was endorsed by the NEC in 2015 does not require that women sign consent forms for the use of temporary methods of family planning.
And contrary to the headline on this article, no women are “forced to quit implants”.

Professor Glen Mola
Head of Obstetrics, Gynecology
and Reproductive Health,
SMHS-UPNG