China has launched a large-scale survey among women who use intrauterine devices, the first of its kind to look into the effect of these devices, said officials with the science and technology department of the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) on Tuesday.

According the officials, China has started the survey among 100,000 people, who may use intrauterine devices as far as five and half years, in 11 provinces or municipalities such as Beijing, Hebei, Guangdong and Sichuan since July 1.

NPFPC's statistics show that over 100 million women use intrauterine devices among the 230 million women at child-bearing age in China.

Most of the devices were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, leaving its safety and effectiveness in question, officials said.

The survey is designed to figure out the effectiveness, negative reaction or failure of the 20-odd types of devices when they are used by different groups of women, so as to guide women to choose the devices suitable for them and develop a new generation of intrauterine devices.

The survey will be concluded by the first half of August and initial analysis of the results done by the end of October.

(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2005)