Why QS?

QS, invented in Chile in 1977, has undergone rigorous scientific study, producing scores of peer reviewed articles attesting to its safety and efficacy. In clinical trials globally, more than 200,000 women in 50 countries have chosen QS as their method of permanent contraception, with no serious side effects and no deaths reported.

Potential of QS for Women & Families

• QS has the potential to prevent far more unwanted pregnancies than the birth control pill.
• According to studies, QS is much safer than surgical sterilization, with a serious complication rate of only one-fiftieth (1/50) that of surgery.
• Research has shown that QS has an efficacy rate of 98% after 4 years – an acceptable rate to most women.
• QS is deliverable everywhere on Earth by trained non-physicians.
• QS can be provided at a price that all can afford. Each dose, packaged in a sterilized inserter, is estimated to cost less than any other method when mass produced.
• Currently, there are no comparable, promising alternatives to QS.
• A woman choosing QS enjoys a lifetime of protection against pregnancy without the stress, complications and fear of surgery.
• At this time QS must be considered irreversible, and is therefore recommended only for women and couples who are certain they have achieved their desired family size.
• When a woman can choose to limit her family size, she is empowered personally and economically.
• A woman who chooses her family size is able to allocate adequate household resources to each child’s health and education.
• We expect QS to be used worldwide.
• Universal availability of a nonsurgical method of permanent birth control could potentially reduce maternal mortality and morbidity, the number of abortions performed worldwide, and the number of unwanted births to all families.

There are several advantages for choosing QS over surgical sterilization.

QS is safer, more accessible, and less taxing on the patient.

First, QS does not involve surgery. This advantage includes benefits like:

• There is a lesser risk of infection, injury, or death.
• The patient does not need to be hospitalized.
• The QS typically involves less pain than surgical sterilization.
• The QS does not require anesthesia.

Second, there are many types of health care providers who can perform the procedure, like a doctor, nurse, or midwife. This is an advantage because if a patient is comfortable with seeing her nurse, she is not required to use a doctor for the procedure.

Finally, in contrast to surgery, the patient can return to normal activities on the same day QS procedure. Most of the QS disadvantages is known is relatively mild. QS is still considered to be an experimental procedure for female sterilization and contraception. As with all procedures, it may be possible in future improvements included to make it reversible.

The following are QS requirements:

• The QS procedure requires at least 2 visits to the provider. Other contraceptive methods, like an IUD or Depo Provera injection, only require 1 visit a clinic.
• The patient must use another reliable contraceptive method for 12 weeks following the first QS insertion.
• QS might be less reversible than surgical sterilization methods. This is because of the way Quinacrine affects the fallopian tubes.
• QS can rarely fail (a patient might still become pregnant) if the fallopian tubes are not completely blocked.
• QS does not protect the patient from a tubal pregnancy (although studies do not show that QS increases the chances for tubal pregnancies).