Experience of the Birth Regulation Department

: Since the establishment of the department at a hospital in Valparais o, Chile, the number of births has declined, as well as the number of abortions (monthly births, from 102 to 70, abortions from 24.7 to 13.8, that is, a decrease of 36.4% and 43.4%, respectively). IUDs, oral contraceptives and, in some cases, condoms have been prescribed. Complications due to IUDs generally concerned expulsion, metrorrhagia (both curable and requiring removal of IUD), infection and intrauterine perforation (few cases) and pelvic pain. The pregnancy rate per 100 years of observations was .80 with the Lippes IUD (more used) and 2.03 with the zipper type. Expulsions amounted to 5.4%. After repositioning, the final expulsion rate was only 1.25%. With respect to oral contraceptives, the findings coincide with those already widely published. The sequential treatment appears to be tolerated considerably better. Since 1970 all patients were subjected to cytological tests, irrespective of age and of apparent good health. This made possible to detect several cases of inflammation and suspected cancer; after treatment, most cases improved, leaving two highly probably cancer cases.