For a study of the safety, efficacy and acceptability of female sterilization with quinacrine pellets in a private-practice setting, data on 160 women who obtained the procedure in Tehran between September 1990 and April 1994 were evaluated. Three-fourths of the women were monitored for at least one year, and more than half were monitored for more than two years. By the end of the study period, two women had become pregnant, for a gross pregnancy rate of 1.2%; neither pregnancy was ectopic. Within the first two months after the procedure, about half of the women reported complications or side effects, which were minor and easily treatable; after the first two months, the only side effect reported was delayed menses. The cost of sterilization with quinacrine pellets is one-10th that of surgical sterilization. However, knowledge about the method is not widespread within the medical community in Iran.
(International Family Planning Perspectives, 22:122-123 & 127, 1996)