Abstract: The aim was to compare the effectiveness, the rates of side effects, discontinuation and menstrual bleeding patterns in Norplant and IUD.A randomized and clinical trial was done.The users of Norplant and Vcu200 were 315 and 320, respectively.The rates of continuation and discontinuation between two groups were compared by life table method and log-rank Chi-Square method.MDS recommended by WHO was used to analyze the menstrual bleeding patterns.Results: The cumulative continuation rate of Norplant and Vcu200 users were 80.07% and 84.42%, respectively.There was no statistic difference.The cumulative discontinuation of pregnancy, menstrual problem, other medical problem and contraceptive advice problem were 0.35%, 13.37%, 6.12%, 0.46% in Norplant users and 9.50%, 1.71%, 0.37%, 4.40% in Vcu200 users.The analysis of menstrual bleeding patterns showed the rate of irregular bleeding in Norplant users was 43.1%～57.6%.The rate of “normal patterns” was 12.9%～32.7% after six months using Norplant.The rate of “normal patterns” was 54.8%～60.2% in Vcu200 users.There was similar continuation rate between Norplant and Vcu200 for five years.In Norplant users the rate of pregnancy was lower, but the rate of irregular bleeding was higher.There are advantage and disadvantage between Norplant and Vcu200, respectively.

Key words: Norplant, IUD, continuation rate, discontinuation rate