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The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

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Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#41

Post by MBlume »

chollida1 wrote: post #10

From the chart in the article I'm surprised the pill has such a poor performance record of 6-12 pregnancies out of 100 women. When I was in high school, university and in my 20's almost all the women I knew were on the pill and I didn't hear once about an unplanned pregnancy or abortion. Infact all the women I know joked about how they were surprised when they went off the pill how easy it was for them to get pregnan…

The pill can be nerfed by interactions with other drugs. Modafinil, for example.

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#42

Post by poulsbohemian »

Am surprised there wasn't a more balanced discussion of bleeding and allergy-like symptoms with IUDs. Among our circle of friends, they all tried IUDs at some point and every one had issues - no pregnancies, but was a bad experience nonetheless. I have to wonder if this article is really a submarine - it mentions "moms" - maybe the IUD was such flop with that demographic that now they are doing PR pieces like this trying to target a different group of women?

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#43

Post by OmIsMyShield »

Part of the reason might be that (here in South Africa, at least) IUDs are generally not advised for use on nulligravid women. The reason quoted to my partner - there might be other reasons - was that the physical changes of the cervix that come with pregnancy makes IUD insertion less painful.

Also, random anecdatum, best to disregard: I personally know one woman who became pregnant while on Mirena. She was told that it is very unusual, though.

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#44

Post by harshreality »

needacig wrote: post #38

Funny, on my FB feed just last week a woman posted an X-ray or some such image with the caption "perforated uterus due to IUD migration" and another woman commented on her photo that it had happened to her too. I don't know how rare it is but that possibility alone would be enough to make me turn and run the other way. At least condoms generally won't perforate your internal organs.

No matter how effective it is, who wants pointy plastic against muscle inside the body?

Why can't IUDs be spheres or at least something a lot less pointy? Something spherical or much more rounded and with more surface contact with the uterus could have perforations in the surface and lots of copper inside to maximize surface area.

The next problem is getting it through the cervix, but existing IUDs have to get the t-bar through the uterus. Is it so different? Couldn't there be a design that allows a IUD ball or blob to expand once inside the uterus, in a way that can be reversed to extract it, all while not presenting any remotely pointy surfaces to the uterus?

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#45

Post by oxalo »

tuxidomasx wrote: post #26

The IUD may be effective for an individual woman because it will be in place for 100% of her sexual partners. The IUD isn't ideal for an individual man because there's no guarantee that 100% of his sexual partners have it installed. For males, a better form of birth control would be a reversible vasectomy (like RISUG/Vasalgel) because it would be in place for 100% of his sexual partners. I think there is a version of…

Ah! That's what it's called. I remember reading about RISUG/ Vasalgel a few years ago and wondering why there isn't more research on it. Seems like it would be the ideal male contraceptive as it's fast, cheap, reversible, and is effective for a few years.

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#46

Post by splat »

mountainair wrote: post #5
splat wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The perfect use failure rate for symptoms-based fertility awareness is (according to Wikipedia anyway) 0.6% per woman per year. (So, 1 woman in 167 per year.) The typical use failure rate is 1.8%, or 1 woman in 56.

Sorry, my question is: How does one use symptoms-based perfectly? My understanding is that a perfect use case happens only a few days each month. So on those few days, you might have very low "failure" rates, but on the other 25 days per month, is a "perfect use" possible?

Sorry I misinterpreted your question! Just a little background -- the reason symptoms-based works is because it's only possible to conceive for ~12-24 hours per cycle. The uterus can sustain sperm for a period of ~2-5 days, so if there's no sperm in the uterus for this ~6 day period, pregnancy is not possible. There are several indicators that signal the beginning of this period: basal body temperature, cervical mucus consistency, and cervical position. To get the best readings, however, these measurements need to be taken immediately after waking up. Moreover, you need a long period of readings (> 6 months) in order to be able to correctly interpret the measurements. I'm assuming that perfect use in this context consists of taking these measurements consistently over a period of at least six months.

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#47

Post by husband09876 »

While not an explanation for all women, considering the percentage of women who are sexually assaulted, the IUD can provoke fear, anxiety, stress, etc. Some women don't feel at all comfortable with anyone but their husband down there, and even then it's not a gimmie that they're comfortable with their husband at first, if their anxiety approaches PTSD level. The very effective implant (into tissue of the upper arm) is just as effective (or trivially more or less so) than an IUD, but has the potential to provoke less anxiety.

That being said, I'm sure that the implant use is still pitifully low compared to less effective methods like the condom.

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#48

Post by chojeen »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #35

What about implants for men? Why do women always have to be the responsible(ish) ones? Note: I say ish, because if people were responsible at all, we'd not have unplanned pregnancies. None 2: I'm a dude and I think it's horribly pathetic that men always expect women to 'deal' with this.

Because women suffer the most of the consequences of an unintended pregnancy, I'd think most women would want to take control of the situation.

That being said, I'll be meeting Citizen Snips right after child #2 is born, whenever that happens.

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#49

Post by filmgirlcw »

MBlume wrote: post #41
chollida1 wrote: post #10

From the chart in the article I'm surprised the pill has such a poor performance record of 6-12 pregnancies out of 100 women. When I was in high school, university and in my 20's almost all the women I knew were on the pill and I didn't hear once about an unplanned pregnancy or abortion. Infact all the women I know joked about how they were surprised when they went off the pill how easy it was for them to get pregnan…

The pill can be nerfed by interactions with other drugs. Modafinil, for example.

Well, Modafinil can lower the potency of the pill, but it doesn't totally ruin it -- especially if you take your pill at the same time each day, etc. I say this from personal experience. But yes, most people don't realize the impact other drugs can have on the pill.

Re: The IUD: The Best Form of Birth Control is the One No One is Using

#50

Post by Zancarius »

harshreality wrote: post #44
needacig wrote: post #38

Funny, on my FB feed just last week a woman posted an X-ray or some such image with the caption "perforated uterus due to IUD migration" and another woman commented on her photo that it had happened to her too. I don't know how rare it is but that possibility alone would be enough to make me turn and run the other way. At least condoms generally won't perforate your internal organs.

No matter how effective it is, who wants pointy plastic against muscle inside the body? Why can't IUDs be spheres or at least something a lot less pointy? Something spherical or much more rounded and with more surface contact with the uterus could have perforations in the surface and lots of copper inside to maximize surface area. The next problem is getting it through the cervix, but existing IUDs have to get the t-…

> The next problem is getting it through the uterus, but existing IUDs have to get the t-bar through the uterus. Is it so different? Couldn't there be a design that allows a perforated IUD ball to expand once inside the uterus, in a way that can be reversed to extract it, all while not presenting any pointy surfaces to the uterus?

I can understand why most investment overseas (mostly for poverty-stricken areas) is focused on barrier methods like condoms (limit the spread of disease), but something like this seems worthwhile. Since the mechanism of copper IUDs is believed to be the presence of copper ions in cervical mucus [1], I'd imagine that the shape of the device isn't quite as important as its composition (correct me if I'm wrong--I haven't seen a study that the shape is important for anything more than holding it in place). If it were of a "safer" design, a woman could be more confident that the device will function without damaging her innards. As an anecdote, I know I wouldn't be comfortable with something like that in me--and I know for a fact my girlfriend isn't. (Aside: It appears they were also invented by men.)

Of note, it appears that IUDs are the most common form of birth control in China, but I seem to remember reading they were fairly common elsewhere and can't find the resource. Maybe someone else can chime in.

Edit: xxxargs (below) [2] provides some interesting information that may alleviate some of these concerns.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iud#Copper

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7966881

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