New method of contraception

Press, 5 March 1987, Page 14

New method of contraception

London NZPA-AAP Lobndon A revolutionary method of contraception, consisting of a tiny electrical battery, will go on trial in Europe this year. The device, the size of a match-head, has been found to deactivate the sperm and when attached to a woman’s cervix, creates a low level electrical field which stops sperm entering the womb. The battery “pill” was developed by American gynaecologist Dr Steven Kaali of a New York contraception and fertility clinic called the Women’s Medical Pavilion, the “Observer” newspaper reported. Clinical trials are expected to take place in the European summer and several pharmaceutical companies have expressed an interest in marketing the invention.

The device is covered in inert material to, stop the body rejecting it, and since it contains no

chemicals or hormones is expected to be a safe and clean method of contraception. It is being mooted as a possible successor to the inter-uterine device (1.U.D.) which many doctors in the United States are refusing to fit because of the crippling legal actions against I.U.D. manufacturers. I.U.D.S are blamed for causing womb infections, some of which lead to sterility, but Dr Kaali claims the battery unit, at one-tenth the size of an 1.U.D., is unlikely to aggravate such infections because it will be attached to the cervix, not to the womb. “We know that a lowlevel electrical current

does not do any harm, because pacemakers have been used in patients’ hearts for years,” he said. “The only possible side effects would be a localised effect on the wall of the cervix, but that it hard to determine.”