Norplant suits multiplying.

Norplant, a five-year contraceptive, is touted by its distributor as "birth control you don't have to think about every day." But thousands of women are thinking about it, and they're angry.

At least seven class-action lawsuits--four of them filed within days of each other last summer--are pending against Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, the Pennsylvania company that manufactures Norplant contraceptives.

Women across the country who have received the silicone-coated hormonal implants charge that the company failed to issue adequate warnings about their unexpectedly difficult removal. A Texas suit also charges that Wyeth-Ayerst gave inadequate warnings about a more dangerous aspect of the contraceptive--side effects that may include severely irregular menstrual cycles, prolonged menstrual bleeding, hair loss, substantial weight gain, and blurred vision.

"We just want to get Norplant off the market and recover damages for the women who have been hurt by it," said Houston lawyer Harold Dampier, who filed suit in federal court in Beaumont, Texas, on behalf of all women who have been injured by Norplant. "It will be a long-drawn-out process, though." (Doe v. Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Inc., Civ. A. No. 1:94CV442 (E.D. Texas filed July 21, 1994).)

Of the lawsuits filed, one class of plaintiffs in Illinois was certified in June. No trial date has been set. The suit seeks damages and an injunction to bar Wyeth-Ayerst from selling Norplant to doctors who are not trained to insert and remove it. (Doe v. Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Inc., No. 93 L 11096 (Ill., Cook County Cir. Ct. class certified June 20, 1994).) Five other cases, filed in federal courts in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania and in a Texas state court, are also in the early stages of litigation.

An eighth lawsuit was filed in California in November 1993, but a federal judge in San Francisco denied class certification. (Williams v. Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Inc., Civ. A. No. 94-625SBA (N. D. Cal. certification denied June 17, 1994).) Plaintiffs' attorney Melvin Belli said his firm will likely file individual lawsuits on behalf of the women.

Norplant was tested in Third World countries before it was approved for the U.S. market in 1990. Wyeth-Ayerst, a division of American Home Products, contends the contraceptive is safe and effective. Dampier, however, said inadequate reporting practices in those countries failed to accurately show the difficulties that arise from the implants. Dampier said a million Norplant kits have been distributed in the United States--many to welfare agencies and nonprofit organizations such as Planned Parenthood.

Norplant consists of six matchsticksize capsules that are surgically implanted in a woman's upper arm. Over five years, the capsules slowly release a low dose of levonorgestrel, a synthetic hormone that prevents pregnancy.

The silicone in Norplant is very similar to that used in breast implants, said Martha McBrayer, a plaintiff's attorney in the San Francisco case. She added that the capsules contain steroids.

"If the manufacturer said this is silicone and steroids, I think most people would say, 'Hmm, I don't think I want that in my arm.' But the manufacturer isn't saying that," she said.