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Friday, December 7, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
The Main Event
Benchwarmers Sports Bar & Grill is proud to bring Lawrence
THE HOTTEST BANDS & The best food and drink specials in town!
December
Friday 7
TGIF Friday with live entertainment and $1.00 Taco Bar from 5:00-7:00
Saturday 8
Tuesday 11
KU vs. Kentucky followed by live entertainment World Beat Reggae, $1.50 imports, $1.50
Margaritas, $ .75 draws, $1.00 hot dogs
"L.A. Ramblers Band", $1.25 Wells, $4.00 Chicken breast baskets
Thursday 13
Bon Ton Soul Accordion Band, $1.00 Long Necks,
$3.00 Gumbo
Friday 14 Bon Ton Soul Accordion Band, TGIF. $1.00 R
Bon Ton Soul Accordion Band, TGIF $1.00 Taco Bar
Saturday 15 SDI Band, Rider at home
Don't Miss It!
U.S. to get new contraceptive
Hormonal implant's effects last up to five years, are reversible
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The government is expected to give U.S. women their first new birth control option in three decades when it apportes a hormonal pill that prevents pregnancy for up to five years, officials said yesterday.
The implant, called Norplant, was expected to win government approval within days, according to a report by a professor who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The method involves implanting in a woman's upper arm six silicone rubber capsules, each about the size of an inch and a half-long wooden stump. The implantation is done with local anesthesia, and the implant isn't noticeable.
The capsules contain a hormone called levonorgestrel, a synthetic progestin, that is released slowly over time.
The $ ^{+} $ contraceptive effects are reversed immediately upon removal.
Norplant is the most effective, reversible method of contraception in the United States, with a failure rate of less than 5%. Said Samuel Passaleq, a principal
investigator in the Norplant studies
It also would be the first long-acting, hormonal contraceptive available in this country.
It would be marketed by Wyeth Ayerst Laboratories of Philadelphia.
A CBS AMC*HORIZES of Philadelphia.
The company was reluctant to talk
about New York without formal
approval from the Food and Drug
Administration.
However, Wyeth-Ayerst spokesperson Audrey Ashby said that assuming the drug was approved soon, the contraceptive would be available commercially in February. The physician will train physicians on how to use the capsules, but "there will be some lag time," she said.
Ashby declined to discuss the cost of Norplant, but she said that pricing was being evaluated. However, she said she expected it would be priced significantly below a five-year supply of oral contraceptives.
Birth-control pills cost $15 to $20 a month.
C. Wayne Bardin, vice president and director of medical research for the New York-based Population Council, said he had been told the
price for Norplant would be $200 to
$300, which does not include the fee
for implanting the device.
The contraceptive contains nothing new — the silicone rubber and the hormone have been used for many years, according to council literature. However, the delivery over a long period of time is a new technique.
An FDA advisory board recommended approval of Norplant in April 1980, saying the method was at least as effective as any other contraceptive on the market.
The National Women's Health Network has expressed concern about the long-term safety of the implant and wants post-marketing surveillance to be conducted for 15 years to get more data.
The contraceptive is more than 99 percent effective overall, meaning that for every 100 women who use Norplant for one year, at most one will become pregnant, according to the council's literature.
Its major side effect is menstrual irregularities, including prolonged periods and spotting between periods.
New company allows Soviet women to marry men who live in America
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Galina is tired of Russian men who expect her to do all the cooking and shopping, plus work a full-time job. She has an idea that with an American man, "things might be a bit more equal."
So, she sent three photographs and an application to Nakhodka, or Godsend, the first "mail-order bride" service matching Soviet women with North American men.
"Of course, if I met a very sweet American man, I would be willing to cook and clean for him, too." Galina, 36, explained in an interview. "But at least I would be living in America."
The lure of love in a land of prosperity has hooked many Soviet women this year. More than 1,500 have paid 50 rubles (about $80) each to join Godsend since it was founded eight months ago.
The company is part of a new Soviet bride industry that includes an Italian marriage service, an international video introduction firm and half-a-dozen magazines packed with personal ads.
Behind the industry are two recent phenomena: President Mikhail Gorbachev's political reforms, which have made it easier to meet, marry and move abroad with foreigners; and the worsening Soviet economy, which has cut into the quality of many women's lives and set them to dream about life in the United States.
Soviet women have a lot more respect for American men than for Soviet men," said Sergel Kurochkin, 39, a former computer software designer who founded Godsend last April.
"They say Soviet men are lazy, unfathomable and rude.
They want someone who will hold doors open for them."
They want someone who will hold doors open for them. "Many letters brim with frustration over the competing demands of working full time, shopping and keeping a home. Kurochkin said the choice of most Soviet women is clear. "They love their homes. They want to be in their kitchens."
For $25, an American man can receive a packet of a dozen such letters and photographs from a Los Angeles-based agency called American-Russian Matchmaking.
After corresponding by mail, the would-be American groom can arrange through Godsend to come to the Soviet Union for 10 days to meet his prospective mate, a trip that costs between $1,500 and $4,000.
If he ends up marrying one of the women, the price rises even more. Since he signed the contract, he's now a millionaire.
Still, there seems to be plenty of interest. After the U.S. Army magazine Stars and Stripes published a picture of some of the women, it got phone calls from U.S. Saudi Arabia, asking for the matchmaking firm's address.
Recently, Kurochikin began requiring Soviet women to say whether they smoke, because bean-sprout-and-whole-wheat types from California were appalled to be matched with chain-smokers.
so far, no marriages have resulted from Godspeed's effort. Kowpaink said the first may be in late January or early February.