The importance of insertion technique for improving results with the copper T.

Clinical studies have been reported over the last 5 years showing that copper improves the performance of intrauterine devices. Reports by Zipper, Medal, and Prager, 1 and Tatum and Zipper2 have substantiated a positive correlation between the surface area of copper applied to an IUD and its effectiveness both in lower mammals1 and in humans.2 The application of copper to Loop A3• 4 also has been reported to reduce the pregnancy rate. Our work with the copper T was part of the Collaborative Programme initiated hy the Population Council and as such afforded an opportunity to make comparisons of clinical results between the collaborative data and the result at the Buffalo Planned Parenthood Center. Interesting differences were observed between the data of the Population Council's Collaborative Programme and that of the Buffalo Planned Parenthood Center, especially the different expulsion rates. This paper is written to describe these differences and the reasons therefore.