New contraceptive choices across reproductive life

In reply: Mea culpa! Essure is, of course, a hysteroscopic rather than a laparoscopic method of female sterilisation and is described so in the text of the article. I apologise for not picking up this error while checking the proofs. Kerin is also correct in pointing out that Essure is made not from pure titanium but from a titanium alloy. The possible adverse effects, though rare, are listed among a number of others in the manufacturer’s information brochure.1

I am always extremely wary of ascribing a 100% effectiveness rate to any contraceptive method. Since Essure has been used so far on only small numbers of women, the figure I quoted was the upper limit of the failure rate in world literature for female sterilisation procedures.2 Although initial experience indicates that the eventual success rate should be very close to 100%, Kerin’s quoted 95% CI suggests that, at present, we can only promise potential Essure users a better than 99.5% effectiveness rate (ie, a failure rate quite close to the figure I used).

I consider Essure to be an excellent new method of permanent contraception, and apologise if my article gave any other impression. I am certain that Australian women and their doctors will increasingly consider it an option in the future.