Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Friday, 22 November 1996.
The advisers to the Food and Drug Administration heard disturbing evidence Friday that women who rely on spermicides as their sole contraceptive have anywhere from a 9 percent to a 57 percent chance of getting pregnant within a year.
And they appear to work best when used just 30 minutes before intercourse, said Dr. James Trussell of Princeton University.
But nobody knows for sure how well spermicides work, and which competitors work best, because the only studies ever performed were flawed. The manufacturers never proved how well their products work because they hit the market in 1950, before the FDA required such proof.
The National Institutes of Health is about to start a study comparing one brand of each type of spermicide sold to see how effective they are.
But the results won't be available for at least four years, so the FDA is debating what to tell consumers in the meantime and if that study will be enough.
The FDA may soon change spermicide labels at least to rank the products as less effective than other contraceptives, Dr. Lisa Rarick, the agency's reproductive health chief, said Friday.
Spermicides also should bear a warning that they may cause vaginal irritation, a condition one study suggests might increase a woman's chances of catching the AIDS virus, the scientific panel told the FDA.
However, the same panel on Wednesday agreed that spermicides can help protect women against two other sexually transmitted diseases, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
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