For women who know they want to have kids, that’s a pretty grim thought, but it turns out to be even worse than that: We lose hundreds or even a thousand eggs per month through a process that’s like programmed cell death, says Owen Davis, MD, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). And even if you’re preventing ovulation with the pill or an IUD, those unreleased eggs don’t stick around — they die.
Tag: IUD
The One Thing Nobody Tells You About The Copper IUD
The copper intrauterine device, or IUD, is one of the most effective methods of contraception. Have a doctor shove a T-shaped copper wire into your uterus and watch as you suddenly prove completely invulnerable to pregnancy! But when it comes to how the copper IUD actually works, without any hormones in it preventing pregnancy, most of us might not have a clue. It turns out that the mechanism that makes copper IUDs so effective is still kind of mysterious; but we do know it has to do with copper ions and how they interact with sperm as it enters the body.
New Report Shows Insurers Are Falling Short on Covering Contraception
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requires contraception to be covered by your insurance plan without a copay. Yet many women still face serious obstacles getting their contraception of choice covered—and not just those who work for conservative employers. A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that a lot of insurers are interpreting the coverage mandate in ways that limit women’s access to certain forms of contraception, especially the vaginal ring, emergency contraception, and the IUD.
The IUD Comeback Continues Apace
New data, released last week as part of the National Survey of Family Growth, finds that 6.4 percent of women ages 15-to-44 are currently relying on intrauterine devices (IUDs) as a method of contraception. While this lags behind those who are using the pill (16 percent) and even sterilization (15.5 percent), it shows a renewed interest and increased trust in a highly effective birth control method that had fallen out of favor. This is good news for public health advocates—many of whom believe that long-acting methods like the IUD are the key to preventing unintended pregnancy in this country.
Riverside Study Supports IUD Use By Teens
Among contraceptive methods in older women — in their 20s and 30s — IUDs have one of the highest rates of satisfaction and effectiveness, according to the study’s authors. The lack of data regarding their use by adolescents led Stovall and his colleague Joelle Aoun M.D. to develop the study.
Changes in health-care laws and a new device may increase the appeal of the IUD
Even though they’re more effective at preventing pregnancy than most other forms of contraception, long-acting birth-control methods such as intrauterine devices and hormonal implants have been a tough sell for women, especially younger ones. But changes in health-care laws and the introduction of the first new IUD in 12 years may make these methods more attractive. Increased interest in the devices could benefit younger women because of their high rates of unintended pregnancy, according to experts in women’s reproductive health.
Even though they’re more effective at preventing pregnancy than most other forms of contraception, long-acting birth-control methods such as intrauterine devices and hormonal implants have been a tough sell for women, especially younger ones. But changes in health-care laws and the introduction of the first new IUD in 12 years may make these methods more attractive. Increased interest in the devices could benefit younger women because of their high rates of unintended pregnancy, according to experts in women’s reproductive health. Read full article.
Could New Skyla Intrauterine Contraception Help Women Reach for the Stars?
It’s evident that contraception, when used correctly and consistently, helps women and couples avoid pregnancy until they’re ready to become parents. Contraception has helped millions of women (and men) stay in school, achieve personal and professional life goals, and plan for healthy pregnancies.
Now, a new contraceptive intrauterine system (IUS), Skyla, will be added to the array of options a woman can choose from to prevent pregnancy.
Skyla is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved hormonal IUS, like Mirena, but smaller. You could think of it as Mirena’s little sister—both developed by Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. Both release the progestin levonorgestrel and both are over 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy. Unlike Mirena, Skyla contains less levonorgestrel and only lasts up to three years whereas Mirena lasts for five.
And, because Skyla is smaller, it can fit into the uterus of women who have not carried a pregnancy to term. This means that younger women, who are less likely to have given birth, have another contraceptive method to choose from.
Historically, young women have relied on birth control pills for contraception, but many have become pregnant while using them. Pills, when used consistently and correctly, are 99 percent effective but are only 91 percent effective with typical use. Skyla and other IUDs are 99 percent effective and leave little room for user error. Read full article.
More Women Choosing IUD’s
(Reuters) – A growing number of U.S. women appear to be 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 U.S. women using birth control chose an IUD or implant, with the large majority going with the IUD. That was up from just under four 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.
The IUD: What Does Your Doc Know That You Don’t?
Few U.S. women choose intrauterine devices, or IUDs, for contraception — a recent study found they rank No. 5 in use, behind oral contraceptives, tubal ligation, condoms and vasectomies.
But IUD use is much more common among one group of women: gynecologists. According to a poll released by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), use of IUDs by female ob-gyns is three times greater than that of the general public.
If the women who are, presumably, the most knowledgeable about reproductive health are choosing IUDs more often than the rest of us, then what is it our gynecologists know that most women don’t?
Why gynecologists love IUDs
IUDs are an excellent birth control option because they are effective, safe and easy to use, said Dr. Sara Pentlicky, a gynecologist and family planning specialist at the University of Pennsylvania.
While some women can’t use estrogen-containing birth control because of health issues, “there are very few women who can’t use an IUD,” Pentlicky said. She estimated that 80 percent of the female doctors in her practice use IUDs for their own contraception.
IUDs have to be inserted by a doctor, but once in place, they are effective immediately and can protect against pregnancy for five to 12 years, depending on the type.
Unlike birth control pills, which require that users remember to take them on a daily basis, IUDs need little to no maintenance. They are nearly 99 percent effective, according to a study published in May in the New England Journal of Medicine.
IUDs also differ from birth control pills in that women have a greater chance of becoming pregnant immediately after stopping use.
In the U.S., there are two IUDs available — ParaGard, a copper, hormone-free device that can protect against pregnancy for up to 12 years, and Mirena, which releases small amounts of a synthetic progestin hormone and can be effective for up to 5 years.
“With ParaGard, you don’t actually stop ovulating like you do with the pill, so when I take it out, you should be able to get pregnant the next month without any trouble,” Pentlicky said.