Already registered? LOG IN to manage your preferences
ADVERTISEMENT
Subscribe
The Best Little Secret In Birth Control
You never have to think about it
By Marisa Cohen
Published: Dec 01, 2007
PRINT
DIGG
NEWSVINE
DEL.ICIO.US
YAHOOWhen a friend complains to me that she forgot to take her birth-control pill because her four-year-old was having a meltdown about wearing her princess shoes to camp, or I think about all those awkward moments of ripping open a condom wrapper or wrestling with a diaphragm that are occurring in bedrooms across the city this very minute, a smug little grin inevitably creeps across my face. Because I am in on birth control’s biggest secret: The IUD is back, and it is awesome.
Friends of mine are occasionally shocked when I mention that I am the proud possessor of an interuterine device, which is basically a small, T-shaped device that is inserted in your uterus and prevents Mr. Sperm from hooking up with Ms. Egg. “Weren’t those banned in the ’70s?” they ask. Yes, the poor, misunderstoond IUD is still living off a reputation it made as a teenager—a lesson the Lindsay Lohans of the world should take to heart.
“There are unfortunately a lot of misperceptions out there about the IUD—among women and practitioners—based on the history of the Dalkon Sheild,” says Vanessa Cullins, MD, the vice president of medical affairs for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “But the IUDs available today are highly safe and highly effective.” How did the IUD get its rep as the bad girl of birth control? IUDs of various types have been around since the 1920s, but they really came into vogue in the Free Love ’60s, around the same time the Pill was introduced. Unfortunately, back then, the government didn’t have the same testing and safety standards that it has today, and in the ’70s, the Dalkon Shield slipped into the market with several problems: Its design made it painful to insert and remove, and the string hanging down (which is used to remove it) was made of a porous material that wicked bacteria into the uterus, causing pelvic infections. All of a sudden, the IUD was women’s health enemy #1, and eventually all IUDs were taken off the market in the United States. Throughout the late ’70s to mid-’80s, you just couldn’t get one. It was like Elaine Benes and her quest for the sponge—women were crossing into Canada for a chance to get an IUD.
But then in 1988, ParaGard, a nonhormonal IUD, was approved and distributed in the U.S.; in 1995, the World Health Organization declared the IUD safe and effective, and in 2000, Mirena, a hormonal-based IUD was introduced. Both the American Medical Association and Planned Parenthood recommend the IUD as one of the safest and most reliable forms of birth control. And even though the IUD is still catching up in the U.S., it never lost its popularity in other countries, and is by far the most popular reversible form of birth control method worldwide, with more than 100 million satisfied customers.
Probably the greatest advantage of the IUD is that you never have to think about, says Dr. Cullins. You go to your doctor’s office or a clinic, a practitioner inserts it, you feel crampy for a few hours, and then you’re done worrying about birth control for five years (with the Mirena) or ten years (with the ParaGard). You’re supposed to check every month or so to make sure you can still feel the strings, to ensure it hasn’t moved, and if you decide you want to start procreating, you can have it removed and return to your natural state of fertility. Since there is little room for human error (as in forgetting a pill or putting in your diaphragm wrong) it is over 99 percent effective.
Leave a Comment:
You must login to leave a comment.