Norplant System Levonorgestrel Implants, Counseling Kit
date: label: date made
content: mid-1990s
name: label: maker
content: Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories
notes: label: Description
content: White and green cardboard box containing resources for health professionals for counseling patients about the Norplant System. Materials include: demonstration flipcharts; one paper pad of Q&A sheets (in English and Spanish); one paper pad of product information sheets; patient information booklets, “The most recent innovation in birth control” / “Introducción de La innovación más reciente en el control de la natalidad”; video tapes, "Counseling; The Key to Patient Acceptance" (in English and Spanish) and counseling manual.
label: Description
content: SEE: 1998.0157.01 for the Norplant System, and 1998.0157.02 for the Norplant System Resource Kit, including the Insertion/Removal Manual.
label: Description
content: Researchers at the Population Council, a non-profit focused on global population concerns, began developing Norplant in the mid-1960s for use in international population control programs. After FDA approval in 1990, Norplant was licensed to Wyeth-Ayerst for distribution in the United States. Norplant consisted of six silicone rods implanted in a woman’s arm that released contraceptive hormones for up to five years, although they could be removed at any time. Norplant was immediately controversial due to concerns that law- and policy-makers targeted poor, teenage, and/or African American women as intended users due to the duration of contraception it provided, and complaints about its cost ($365 for Norplant itself, plus insertion) and negative side effects. The most serious health complaints involved infection and scarring at the insertion site and problems with removal. With declining sales and litigation costs of nearly 200 lawsuits, Wyeth suspended distribution in 2000, and removed Norplant from the market in 2002.
label: Description
content: Reference: Watkins, Elizabeth Siegel. "From Breakthrough to Bust: The Brief Life of Norplant, the Contraceptive Implant." Journal of Women's History, vol. 22 no. 3, 2010, p. 88-111.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1998.0157.03
label: catalog number
content: 1998.0157.03
label: accession number
content: 1998.0157
objectType: label: Object Name
content: educational materials, contraceptive
label: Other Terms
content: educational materials, contraceptive; Teaching Materials
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall, cardboard box: 11 in x 12 1/8 in x 4 1/8 in; 27.94 cm x 30.7975 cm x 10.4775 cm