Contraception: The Three-Month Injection

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Miss a day with the conventional birth control pill and maternity may result. Researchers—not to mention users—have long hoped for something with a longer-lasting effect. Now the Upjohn Co. believes that its drug Depo-Provera may be the answer. It has been used for treatment of uterine disorders, but one of its side effects proved to be infertility lasting a year or more. This is understandable, since the drug's basic ingredient is a synthetic female hormone that is also the main component of Upjohn's birth control pills. Last week the company announced that it will begin marketing Depo-Provera for long-term birth control injections by doctors as soon as it wins the approval of the Food and Drug Administration.

A single dose of Depo-Provera, injected into a deep muscle, will render a woman infertile for as long as three months. In conventional pill form, the drug is effective for short terms (women take the pills for 20 days, then stop to permit menstruation). In its injection form, the drug's effect is greatly prolonged by the muscle's slow release of the chemical.