A study of a simple contraceptive method for clinic and private patients.

In an effort to encourage contraceptive use it was beneficial to offer a simple, reliable, and satisfactory contraceptive method needing no special skill for its adoption. Among a group of 1023 patients, 871 (85%) used the vaginal jelly. Of those 436 patients offered both jelly and cream, 273 (64%) preferred the jelly and 153 (36%) the cream. Among those using only jelly, 71 (8%) became pregnant resulting in a 2.2% failure and a 97.8% effectiveness rate. Of those patients using only cream 7% became pregnant yielding a 2.4% failure and 97.6% effectiveness rate. 5 women in the total group were sterilized. Evidence indicating pruritus or vaginal irritation was absent in the entire group. This study showed that the cream is as efficient as the jelly - when used alone without the diaphragm and according to instructions both provdie simple, reliable, and satisfactory contraception.