Women Gleeful at Return of Sponge Contraceptive
March 7, 2003
By KATE ZERNIKE
For years, women have been asking, "When?"
They got their answer this week when a small New Jersey
pharmaceutical company announced that it was shipping out
new supplies of the Today Sponge, a popular
over-the-counter method of birth-control that was
discontinued in 1994.
Within a day, a Canadian Web site set up to distribute the
sponges received so many hits that it crashed; the
operators set up a new site to accommodate the thousands of
new orders and posted a notice on the original begging for
patience.
About 1,000 women who had preordered the sponges as far
back as two years ago sent out e-mail messages to friends,
with the news that their supplies would arrive within the
week - all proof that generations after a little pill was
supposed to revolutionize birth control, many women still
struggle to find a reliable, low-hassle and
low-embarrassment method of contraception.
"Ever since I got the e-mail saying they'd be shipped, I've
been singing that Aretha Franklin song, `Freedom, freedom,'
" said Robin Roberts, an artist in Atlanta who had ordered
two large boxes a year ago.
The sponge, a small squishy disc treated with spermicide,
appealed to women who did not want to use hormones - the
pill, a shot, or an implant. It could be inserted several
hours before sex, and remained effective for as long as 24
hours. It was more convenient than a condom, less invasive
than an I.U.D., and the original manufacturer sold 250
million sponges between Today's market appearance in 1983
and disappearance in 1994, about 12 percent of the
contraceptive market at the time.
In the years since it disappeared, the sponge achieved a
kind of cult status, helped by a 1995 "Seinfeld" episode in
which Elaine, discovering it would be discontinued, goes
from pharmacy to pharmacy to stock up, then forces
boyfriends to prove themselves "spongeworthy."
A Spongeworthy Watch newsletter kept 8,000 subscribers up
to date about Today's promised return to the market, and
the president of Allendale Pharmaceuticals, the New Jersey
company that is making the product again, communicated with
an additional 5,000 women.
"I was at my wits' end," said Stephanie Blaine, a Navy
program manager in Alexandria, Va., who preordered last
month after discovering Allendale's Web site in her
Internet search for better birth control. "I thought
there's got to be some other way than these other
alternatives."
When the sponge disappeared, women were so disappointed
that many wrote the manufacturer and the Food and Drug
Administration, pleading for its return. Some even wrote to
Congress.
"I didn't do the Elaine and buy a closet full, but I could
really understand that episode, because I wish I had
stocked up," said Dawn Schroer, who works at a publishing
company in Minneapolis. "There just aren't a lot of
options, short of permanent sterilization, that are
reliable and aren't a major inconvenience."
Doctors say that in fact, there are. In the years since the
sponge disappeared, hormonal contraceptives have become
safer. The F.D.A. has expressed new concerns about whether
products containing nonoxynol-9, the spermicide used in
Today, can increase H.I.V. transmission. The sponges are
hardly the most reliable method to prevent pregnancy -
their effectiveness rate is a relatively low 85 percent to
90 percent. And while some researchers say the sponge
blocks some sexually transmitted diseases, the drug agency
says it does not.
Still, doctors say they understand its appeal.
"For years
I've had patients saying, `When's the sponge coming back,
when's the sponge coming back?' " said Deborah Oyer, a
family practitioner in Seattle and a member of Physicians
for Reproductive Choice and Health. "The thing about
contraception is, there is no ideal method for everyone,
and when someone finds something that works, and then it
disappears, it's like having your insurance change and
having to find a new doctor."
If women like a method, they are more likely to use it
properly, making it more effective, said Paul Blumenthal, a
gynecologist in Baltimore and an associate professor at
Johns Hopkins. "Women want something they can control, and
this is one of those things," he said.
Whitehall-Robins Healthcare, a unit of Wyeth, stopped
making Today Sponges in 1994 after an F.D.A inspection of
its plant found bacteria contaminating the water used to
make the devices. The company decided it would be too
expensive to upgrade the plant, but the sponge retained its
F.D.A. drug approval.
In 1998, Gene Detroyer, a businessman who had started out
developing disposable plates and cups for the maker of
Hefty bags, heard that the rights to the sponge were for
sale. He said he told his partner at Allendale, a scientist
who exclaimed, "That's a great product!"
Mr. Detroyer said he had since read enough letters from
women echoing that same thought to believe that the new
incarnation of Today would be a big seller. He sees a whole
new generation of users among women in their 20's who were
not sexually active when the sponge was available.
"This is going to make millions of women very happy," Mr.
Detroyer said. "As happy as paper plates may make them,
this is going to make them happier."
[Huh ?]
Allendale initially said it would have the sponges back in
stores in fall 1999, but the drug agency said the company's
plant did not meet manufacturing standards. The company is
now conducting chemical studies at another plant in order
to show the agency that the drug it is making is the same
one approved back in 1983. It now says it expects Today
Sponges back on shelves in this country within the year.
In the meantime, Mr. Detroyer arranged with two Canadian
Web sites to sell the product by mail, and Today Sponges
will appear on Canadian pharmacy shelves next month. He
found a sympathetic voice in Barbara Bell, 62, who created
the Web site birthcontrol.com to sell sponges out of her
one-bedroom condominium outside Vancouver, British
Columbia, in 1999.
"You can get affordable, safe contraceptives better in
Bangladesh than you can in New York City," Ms. Bell said,
"and that's wrong."
Her Web site has sold Protectaid sponges, which use a
different combination of spermicides, for several years, in
addition to holding orders for women who wanted Today
Sponges as soon as they could have them.
Jolene Gladson was one of those women. She had never used
the sponge, but heard about it from her friends, and at 39,
says she worries about the risks of being on the pill.
"Maybe it's laziness," she said, "but I like the
convenience of it, not having to go to the doctor to get a
prescription or a shot. And I don't like the idea of
polluting my body with all those hormones."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company. |
