IUDs a Very Effective Form of Birth Control, Study Confirms

FRIDAY, Feb. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — You’ve simply delivered your second or third little one, and also you’re prepared to shut the door on any future pregnancies. Does it matter whether or not you select to make use of an IUD or have your tubes tied?

It seems that IUDs are practically as efficient as having your tubes tied in stopping undesirable pregnancies and trigger fewer unwanted effects, a brand new examine finds.

It challenges the broadly held perception that having your tubes tied (tubal ligation) — which requires surgical procedure and is everlasting — is simpler than an IUD, which is definitely eliminated.

“Tubal ligation is actually not the gold normal for being pregnant prevention,” stated examine first creator Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, a professor of drugs on the University of California, San Francisco and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

She and her colleagues examined claims information from greater than 83,000 Medi-Cal recipients who acquired both a tubal ligation or an IUD between 2008 and 2014, to see what number of grew to become pregnant inside a yr.

Pregnancy charges had been 2.6% for individuals who had tubal ligations, 2.4% for these with levonorgestrel (hormonal) IUDs and a pair of.9% for these with copper IUDs, in response to the examine.

Compared to girls who had their tubes tied, these with IUDs had been much less prone to get infections or have procedure-related issues, and greater than six months later had much less pelvic, belly and genitourinary ache.

“Tubal ligation is everlasting and regrets following these procedures are laborious, particularly when protection of infertility therapy is restricted, as it’s for Medicaid purchasers,” Schwarz stated in a college information launch.

Since IUDs are a minimum of as efficient as tubal ligation, sufferers “must be inspired to attempt an IUD earlier than going to the working room for a everlasting process,” Schwarz steered.

The examine is the primary rigorous evaluation of how long-term contraception strategies carry out in the actual world, in response to the researchers.

“Women are instructed the prospect of being pregnant with these contraceptives is 1 in 1,000 however we discovered a lot greater charges of being pregnant,” Schwarz famous. “This real-world information is actually vital for scientific decision-making.”

The findings had been printed Feb. 23 within the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

More info

There’s extra on contraception on the U.S. Office on Women’s Health.

SOURCE: University of California, San Francisco, information launch, Feb. 23, 2022