Abstract

PIP: The Saf-T-Coil will no longer be produced, and several experts in family planning reqret that this IUD will no longer be available as an option. John Rutzel, senior vice president of Julius Schmid Laboratories, Little Falls, New Jersey, explained that the company decided to stop making the Saf-T-Coil because market shares have fallen to well below 5% of the IUD market over the past 2 years. He attributed the sales decrease to the popularity of other available IUDs. The Saf-T-Coil, introduced in 1967, is one of the least expensive IUDs on the market and has a competitive 12 month continuation rate. Family planning experts who were interviewed agreed that an attractive feature of the Saf-T-Coil is the ease of its insertion. Betty J. Vaughn, physician and assistant director of the Orange County Health Department in Orlando, Florida has been studying the use of the Saf-T-Coil since 1966. She also was disturbed by the discontinuation of this IUD. Dr. Amir Ansari, director of the department of obstetrics and gynecology of Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta observed that there seems to be a small population of women who will reject every other type of IUD but the Saf-T-Coil. The Saf-T-Coils are not his 1st choice of an IUD, but he has found them useful for those women. In actuality, since 1970, there has been a steady decrease in all IUD use.