Patent ID: 7040323
Filing Date: 2006-05-09
Classification: A61F

Abstract:
1. A method of preventing conception in a human or other mammal comprising the steps of providing a device insertable into a mammalian uterus having an inner wall controlled by uterine muscles, the device comprising a thin film of shape memory alloy material that, responsive to being heated to its crystalline phase-change transformation temperature, undergoes a phase change and resulting shape change from a martensitic elastic phase to an austenitic memory having a predetermined shape, placing the device in the uterus, and heating the device to the transformation temperature, the thin film have a thickness in the range of one to forty microns sufficient to enable the device in its austenitic memory shape to make contact with the inner wall and enable the device in the predetermined shape to move with the inner wall during contractions and relaxations of the uterine muscles.