Hormonal Implant Services: Delivering a Highly Effective Contraceptive Method Now Available at Reduced Cost

Technical Brief No. 2, September 2013 

The three brands of hormonal implants currently available—Implanon^®, Jadelle^®, and Sino-implant (II)^®—are all convenient, highly effective, long-acting, and reversible methods of contraception. The international family planning community has greeted with great enthusiasm recent news that the commodity cost of implants is being reduced by half, thanks to donor volume guarantees. As a result, more than 40 million implants will be made available to low-resource countries between 2013 and 2018. Lowered cost will not necessarily lead to wider access and use, however; for that to happen, programs will also have to ensure informed choice, careful client selection, an adequate, well-deployed complement of skilled and motivated providers, good counseling, capable management of side effects, adequate follow-up, and reliable availability of prompt removal services.

This Technical Brief reviews the characteristics of the hormonal implant, programmatic considerations for service delivery and scale-up, and the potential health benefits of improved access to implants.

We invite you to download the brief (PDF, 2.85MB).