Your healthcare provider will help you determine if IMPLANON™ is right for you. He or she will review the Patient Labeling and Consent Form with you to be sure you understand all of the potential risks and benefits of using IMPLANON™. The information on this website does not take the place of a thorough discussion with your healthcare provider.

IMPLANON™ insertion should be a minor procedure that can be performed in a healthcare provider's office. The entire procedure is done using a local anesthetic and generally takes a few minutes.

Rarely, IMPLANON™ is not inserted at all due to a failed insertion or if the implant has fallen out of the needle. If this happens, you may become pregnant. After insertion, and with direction from your healthcare provider, you should be able to feel IMPLANON™ under your skin. If you can't feel IMPLANON™, tell your healthcare provider.

Some other problems related to insertion are:

• Pain, irritation, swelling, or bruising
  
• Scarring, including a thick scar called a keloid
  
• Infection
  
• IMPLANON™ breaks, making it difficult to remove
  
• Expulsion of the implant (occurs rarely)

IMPLANON™ is made of a medical material that can be left in your body for up to 3 years. However, IMPLANON™ must be removed by the end of the third year and can be replaced by a new IMPLANON™ if continued contraceptive protection is needed.

Some women may feel a pinch, similar to a shot or injection, when IMPLANON™ is inserted. A local anesthetic is used to minimize discomfort. After the insertion, a woman might feel some mild soreness or tenderness at the insertion site. It shouldn’t last more than a day or two and shouldn’t interfere with your usual activities. During clinical studies that included 942 women, only about 1% (nine women) had complications at insertion. Complications expected of a minor surgical procedure, such as pain, numbness/tingling, bleeding, bruising, scarring, or infection have been reported. If your symptoms do not resolve in a day or two, you should contact your healthcare provider.

Your healthcare provider will help you determine when to have IMPLANON™ inserted. The timing will depend upon whether you are currently using birth control and which method you are using. You should not be pregnant when you start using IMPLANON™.

If IMPLANON™ is inserted as recommended in the product labeling, backup contraception is not necessary. Talk to your healthcare provider about the timing of IMPLANON™ insertion. In some situations, you may need a backup method of contraception for 7 days after insertion.

It is important to tell your healthcare provider about any medications you are taking or intend to take, including prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, and herbal remedies or supplements, such as St. John’s Wort. There may be interactions with some of these medications that could decrease the effectiveness of IMPLANON™, and you may need to use a barrier method. Please see the Patient Labeling and talk with your healthcare provider about this.

IMPLANON™ is not for everyone. Do not use IMPLANON™ if you:

• Are pregnant or think you may be pregnant
  
• Have or have had serious blood clots, such as blood clots in your legs (deep venous thrombosis), lungs (pulmonary embolism), eyes (retinal thrombosis), heart (heart attack), or head (stroke)
  
• Have unexplained vaginal bleeding
  
• Have liver disease
  
• Have or have had breast cancer
  
• Are allergic to anything in IMPLANON™

Tell your healthcare provider if you have ever had any of these conditions. He or she can suggest another method of birth control.

In addition, talk to your healthcare provider about using IMPLANON™ if you have or have had diabetes, high cholesterol or triglycerides, headaches, seizures or epilepsy, gallbladder or kidney disease, depression, high blood pressure, or an allergic reaction to anesthetics or antiseptics.

Once IMPLANON™ is successfully removed, your ability to get pregnant usually returns quickly. Some women have become pregnant within days after removal of IMPLANON™.

You must schedule an appointment and have IMPLANON™ removed no later than 3 years after the date of insertion. Although IMPLANON™ is designed to last up to 3 years, your healthcare provider can remove it at any time. When IMPLANON™ is inserted, your healthcare provider will give you a User Card that lists the date of insertion and expected date of removal. Keep this card at home with your other important health records.

After removal, if you do not want to become pregnant, you should start another birth control method right away.

If you switch to a new healthcare provider before IMPLANON™ is removed, be sure to ask if he or she is trained to insert and remove IMPLANON™. If you need help finding a healthcare provider who has been trained at a program sponsored by Organon USA Inc. to perform these procedures, call 1-877-IMPLANON (1-877-467-5266).

Your healthcare provider can remove IMPLANON™ at any time with a minor surgical procedure in the office. He or she will make a small incision in your arm and remove IMPLANON™. A local anesthetic is used for the procedure. Some minor bruising, redness, swelling, and/or pain may occur where IMPLANON™ was removed. Your healthcare provider should not attempt to remove IMPLANON™ unless its location has been firmly established (e.g., by palpation [touching]).

During clinical trials, only 15 out of 942 women (1.7%) had complications at implant removal. Complications expected of a minor surgical procedure, such as pain, bleeding, bruising, scarring, keloid (thick scar) formation, and infection have been reported. Rarely, removal of IMPLANON™ is difficult or even impossible because IMPLANON™ is not where it should be. If IMPLANON™ cannot be removed, then the effects of IMPLANON™ will continue for a longer period of time. There have been rare reports of IMPLANON™ breaking during removal, making it difficult to remove. Deep insertions may result in the need for a surgical procedure in an operating room in order to remove IMPLANON™. Any of the possible complications of surgery may occur. Removals of deeply inserted implants can lead to scarring, nerve damage, or other complications.

Failure to remove IMPLANON™ may result in infertility, pregnancy outside of the womb (ectopic pregnancy), or inability to stop a drug-related adverse event.

There is a slight risk that you will get a scar from insertion or removal of IMPLANON™. Women with a personal or family history of developing raised, thickened scars (keloids) should be sure to tell their Healthcare Providers. Women with this condition may be more likely to scar.

A new IMPLANON™ can be inserted in the same place where the old one was, or it can be inserted in the other arm. Your healthcare provider will decide the best place to insert IMPLANON™.

Expect your menstrual periods to be irregular and unpredictable throughout the time you are using IMPLANON™. You may have more bleeding, less bleeding, or no bleeding. The time between periods may vary, and, in between periods, you may have spotting.

You should discuss any questions you may have about irregular bleeding with your Healthcare Provider. Be sure to let him or her know if you think you may be pregnant or if your bleeding is heavy and prolonged.

In clinical trials involving 942 women, one in 10 women stopped using IMPLANON™ because of bleeding changes. Besides irregular bleeding, the most frequent side effects that caused women to stop using IMPLANON™ in clinical trials were mood swings, weight gain, headache, acne, and depression. This is not a complete list of possible side effects.

IMPLANON™ may be covered by your insurance plan. To determine if you have coverage, you should call the customer service number on the back of your insurance card. Ask if IMPLANON™ is covered under your policy. You may need to explain that IMPLANON™ is an implantable contraceptive. You may also be asked to provide the billing code for IMPLANON™. You can ask your healthcare provider for the code. If IMPLANON™ is covered, ask the customer service representative to send verification of coverage to your healthcare provider.