Time.com Examines Growing Market For Tubal Ligation Alternative

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 19 Dec 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Time.com on Thursday examined an irreversible sterilization procedure called Essure, a less-expensive alternative to tubal ligation that does not require surgery or general anesthesia. The procedure involves inserting a 1.5 inch coil into each of a woman's fallopian tubes, which irritates the tubes and produces scar tissue that grows around and into the loops of the coil. After three months, the tubes are blocked and eggs cannot reach the uterus to be fertilized.

Time.com reports that 700,000 women in the U.S. undergo surgical tubal ligation procedures annually, which require anesthesia, a hospital stay and about a week of recovery. Essure offers a "more user-friendly" alternative to surgical methods and "can cost patients as little as a doctor's visit copay," according to Time.com. The Millennium Research Group projects that the female sterilization market will increase from $80 million in 2007 to $245 million by 2012 as more women opt for faster, less costly procedures like Essure.

FDA approved Essure in 2002, and hospitals performed the majority of the implantations until about a year ago. Conceptus, which manufactures Essure, began training physicians to perform the procedure in their offices last year, and the company recently launched its first advertising campaign. Meanwhile, Hologic -- a Conceptus competitor -- expects to seek FDA approval in 2009 for Adiana, a soft silicone polymer similar to Essure.

Some physicians are concerned that women who undergo irreversible sterilization procedures might later change their minds about wanting more children, according to Time.com. Alan Bennett, an ob-gyn who used to perform tubal ligations and now only uses Essure, said that the "most important job we have is to make sure people are absolutely certain." A study in Obstetrics and Gynecology found that of more than 11,000 women who had undergone voluntary sterilization, 20% of those younger than age 30 at the time of the operation felt regret later, compared with only 6% of those older than 30 (Lee-St. John, Time, 12/22).

The article also will appear in the Dec. 22 issue of Time Magazine.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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