See related articles by Stout et al. and by Georges et al.
Thirty-one years ago, Uniject—a prefilled, single-dose syringe and needle package that features a collapsible blister—was conceptualized.1 Seventeen years later Uniject was approved to administer 104 mg of the contraceptive depot medroxyprogesterone acetate subcutaneously (DMPA-SC).2 DMPA-SC is still nascent in many countries, but in others it has transitioned to prominence even where there is already an intramuscular DMPA (DMPA-IM) product on the market. DMPA-SC is now coming of age, and offering it alongside a broad range of other contraceptive options, including fertility awareness methods, long-acting reversible methods, and permanent methods, increases choice and access to voluntary family planning.
This issue of GHSP includes 2 articles that present data on DMPA-SC introduction experiences in 4 countries that were among the earliest to introduce DMPA-SC and have shown great progress: Burkina Faso (Stout et al.3 and Georges et al.4), and Niger, Senegal, and Uganda (Stout et al.3).
THE CONTEXT
In developing regions, 214 million women of reproductive age want to avoid pregnancy but are not using a modern contraceptive method.5 The Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) global partnership has set an ambitious goal to reach more than half of these women with voluntary family planning, yet we are not on track to achieve this goal.6,7 Given the great challenge, adding another voluntary contraceptive option to the method mix will help women and couples to optimally time and space their pregnancies for the …