THE NOVA-T IUD - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

The Nova-T IUD is being widely used in Western Europe, Canada, and some parts of Asia; numerous studies based on comparative trials with other types of IUDs have been reported. The results were consistent among most studies, but conflicting among others. This review paper revealed that, in general, the Nova-T IUD is a safe, effective, and acceptable device for contraception. However, more comparative studies with the other copper-releasing IUDs are needed to resolve some of the controversial findings on its long-term (e.g., five years or more) efficacy, especially with the TCu 380A which has the prospect of being used worldwide. The epidemiological (e.g., effects of age, parity, and lactating status of the women) and programmatic aspects (e.g., provider factors and timing of insertion) related to the performance of this device are also reviewed in this paper.