Randomized clinical study of the T-Cu 380A and the Lippes loop C, in Campinas, Brazil.

The copper IUD model T-Cu 380A has shown the best performance when compared with other copper and inert IUDs in studies carried out in the U.S.A., but it had not been tried out in developing countries yet. T-Cu 380A and Lippes loop C were inserted at random in 328 healthy parous women, in Campinas, SP, Brasil. Forty-five percent of the T-Cu 380A insertions and 40% of the Lippes loop insertions were performed by trained midwives. No pregnancies occurred in 1419 woman-months of use of T-Cu 380A, against 5 pregnancies in 1454 woman-months of use of Lippes loop. The difference was significant at the 5% level. No other significant differences were found. The continuation rate after one year of use was 82.5 for the T-Cu 380A and 75.1 for the Lippes loop. These results suggest that the performance of the T-Cu 380A in developing countries could be similar to the one observed in the United States, provided that the users are carefully selected and that an adequate insertion technique is followed.