More women using IUDs in America
Source: Agencies |
August 4, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A growing number of US women are opting for intrauterine devices (IUDs) as their birth control method, with the number more than doubling in just two years in one study.
Researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Fertility & Sterility, said this is good news, since IUDs and contraceptive implants are the most effective forms of reversible birth control.
But in the United States they are still far from popular, with use lagging well behind birth control pills and condoms.
The study found that in 2009, 8.5 percent of US women using birth control chose an IUD or implant, with the large majority going with the IUD. That was up from just under 4 percent in 2007.
"We saw some pretty notable growth," said lead researcher Lawrence B. Finer of the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a sexual and productive health organization.
In France and Norway, about one-quarter of women on birth control use IUDs or implants, and in China 41 percent, Finer's team said.
When IUDs first came out, there were concerns - later disproved - that they might raise the risk of pelvic infection and jeopardize women's future fertility. Some doctors in the US still harbor misconceptions about their safety.
It's not clear what's behind the shift, but a combination of factors are likely at play, Finer said.
One is that medical societies, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have endorsed IUDs and implants. Another is that advertisements have probably increased women's awareness of IUDs.
Researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Fertility & Sterility, said this is good news, since IUDs and contraceptive implants are the most effective forms of reversible birth control.
But in the United States they are still far from popular, with use lagging well behind birth control pills and condoms.
The study found that in 2009, 8.5 percent of US women using birth control chose an IUD or implant, with the large majority going with the IUD. That was up from just under 4 percent in 2007.
"We saw some pretty notable growth," said lead researcher Lawrence B. Finer of the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a sexual and productive health organization.
In France and Norway, about one-quarter of women on birth control use IUDs or implants, and in China 41 percent, Finer's team said.
When IUDs first came out, there were concerns - later disproved - that they might raise the risk of pelvic infection and jeopardize women's future fertility. Some doctors in the US still harbor misconceptions about their safety.
It's not clear what's behind the shift, but a combination of factors are likely at play, Finer said.
One is that medical societies, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have endorsed IUDs and implants. Another is that advertisements have probably increased women's awareness of IUDs.
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