Lilith
04-11-2003, 06:58 AM
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY
Apparently, many men are sponge-worthy, but few, at least for now, will be chosen.
The Today contraceptive sponge — practically a cultural icon, thanks to an oft-cited Seinfeld episode — hasn't been sold in the USA since 1994. But it re-entered the Canadian market last month, and two enterprising Web sites began selling it to women south of the border.
"We went though 1,200 boxes in one week, 1,200 boxes of 12," says birthcontrol.com co-founder Barbara Bell, whose site's server crashed after receiving hundreds of thousands of hits from women interested in the sponge. "That was our whole supply."
Virtually all of those boxes went to women in the USA, says Bell, who hopes to fill orders for 400 more boxes any day now. And the Web site for feelbest.com — "Canada's largest online pharmacy" — promises to resume filling orders mid-month. The sites charge about $3 a sponge.
The sponge disappeared after a dozen years on the market because Whitehall-Robins Healthcare, now part of Wyeth, decided it wasn't worth upgrading its plant to meet Food and Drug Administration standards.
New Jersey businessman Gene Detroyer bought the rights to the sponge in 1998 and had expected to reintroduce it in the USA the next year. But Detroyer said last month that he expects it will take until the end of this year to satisfy FDA concerns about how the sponge is manufactured.
However, Detroyer said the agency gave him permission to export the sponge to countries in which it is licensed. An FDA spokeswoman Monday said her agency is looking at whether importing an unapproved over-the-counter drug, which is how the FDA classifies the sponge, into the country violates any regulations.
Bell says many of her customers weren't yet sexually active by the time the Today sponge came off the market. But they were intrigued by that 1995 Seinfeld episode, often seen in reruns, in which Elaine hoards sponges after learning that they will no longer be made. The character forces suitors to prove they're "sponge-worthy."
"I don't think the novelty is really going to wear off," says Bell, who lives near Vancouver. Women want a non-hormonal method, she says, and in the sponge, they have "a contraceptive that is safe, is convenient and easy to obtain."
The squishy sponge certainly is convenient. Individually packaged, it can be inserted into the vagina hours before intercourse and left in place for up to 24 hours. And, unlike most other contraceptives, it doesn't require a doctor's visit or even a prescription.
Unfortunately, it might not be as safe as it seemed in 1995, and its failure rate is high. The sponge contains a substantial amount of nonoxynol 9, a spermicide scientists now say might enhance transmission of HIV.
In addition, the sponge is not as effective a contraceptive as a diaphragm, let alone hormonal methods such as the pill, says a report in the January issue of Contraception. And women are less likely to stick with the sponge than the diaphragm, the authors found.
"Nonetheless, I do think the sponge is a reasonable option for women as long as they're aware of those limitations," says co-author David Grimes, an obstetrician/gynecologist and vice president for biomedical affairs at Family Health International in Durham, N.C.
Not women who have had children, though, warns James Trussell, director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. In that group, the sponge's failure rate can be as high as 40% in a year, he says.
Women who don't like hormonal contraceptives and can't depend on their partners to use a condom would be better served by the female condom, says Trussell, co-author of the book Contraceptive Technology.
"It's got to be clearly superior to a sponge, because it provides STD (sexually transmitted disease) protection, and it's a better contraceptive," he says.
"It's unfortunate that it's not particularly attractive."
And no contraceptive works if it's not used, Trussell says. "Anything that anybody likes well enough to actually use can be good for that person," he says. "For some people, the sponge could be a more effective method than birth-control pills."
Apparently, many men are sponge-worthy, but few, at least for now, will be chosen.
The Today contraceptive sponge — practically a cultural icon, thanks to an oft-cited Seinfeld episode — hasn't been sold in the USA since 1994. But it re-entered the Canadian market last month, and two enterprising Web sites began selling it to women south of the border.
"We went though 1,200 boxes in one week, 1,200 boxes of 12," says birthcontrol.com co-founder Barbara Bell, whose site's server crashed after receiving hundreds of thousands of hits from women interested in the sponge. "That was our whole supply."
Virtually all of those boxes went to women in the USA, says Bell, who hopes to fill orders for 400 more boxes any day now. And the Web site for feelbest.com — "Canada's largest online pharmacy" — promises to resume filling orders mid-month. The sites charge about $3 a sponge.
The sponge disappeared after a dozen years on the market because Whitehall-Robins Healthcare, now part of Wyeth, decided it wasn't worth upgrading its plant to meet Food and Drug Administration standards.
New Jersey businessman Gene Detroyer bought the rights to the sponge in 1998 and had expected to reintroduce it in the USA the next year. But Detroyer said last month that he expects it will take until the end of this year to satisfy FDA concerns about how the sponge is manufactured.
However, Detroyer said the agency gave him permission to export the sponge to countries in which it is licensed. An FDA spokeswoman Monday said her agency is looking at whether importing an unapproved over-the-counter drug, which is how the FDA classifies the sponge, into the country violates any regulations.
Bell says many of her customers weren't yet sexually active by the time the Today sponge came off the market. But they were intrigued by that 1995 Seinfeld episode, often seen in reruns, in which Elaine hoards sponges after learning that they will no longer be made. The character forces suitors to prove they're "sponge-worthy."
"I don't think the novelty is really going to wear off," says Bell, who lives near Vancouver. Women want a non-hormonal method, she says, and in the sponge, they have "a contraceptive that is safe, is convenient and easy to obtain."
The squishy sponge certainly is convenient. Individually packaged, it can be inserted into the vagina hours before intercourse and left in place for up to 24 hours. And, unlike most other contraceptives, it doesn't require a doctor's visit or even a prescription.
Unfortunately, it might not be as safe as it seemed in 1995, and its failure rate is high. The sponge contains a substantial amount of nonoxynol 9, a spermicide scientists now say might enhance transmission of HIV.
In addition, the sponge is not as effective a contraceptive as a diaphragm, let alone hormonal methods such as the pill, says a report in the January issue of Contraception. And women are less likely to stick with the sponge than the diaphragm, the authors found.
"Nonetheless, I do think the sponge is a reasonable option for women as long as they're aware of those limitations," says co-author David Grimes, an obstetrician/gynecologist and vice president for biomedical affairs at Family Health International in Durham, N.C.
Not women who have had children, though, warns James Trussell, director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. In that group, the sponge's failure rate can be as high as 40% in a year, he says.
Women who don't like hormonal contraceptives and can't depend on their partners to use a condom would be better served by the female condom, says Trussell, co-author of the book Contraceptive Technology.
"It's got to be clearly superior to a sponge, because it provides STD (sexually transmitted disease) protection, and it's a better contraceptive," he says.
"It's unfortunate that it's not particularly attractive."
And no contraceptive works if it's not used, Trussell says. "Anything that anybody likes well enough to actually use can be good for that person," he says. "For some people, the sponge could be a more effective method than birth-control pills."