Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are the most effective, reversible and longest acting birth control method. They require no effort for compliance and avoid systemic synthetic hormones. Evidence-based effectiveness and saf...Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are the most effective, reversible and longest acting birth control method. They require no effort for compliance and avoid systemic synthetic hormones. Evidence-based effectiveness and safety studies have demonstrated IUDs rival sterilization. IUDs low cost make them the most popular method worldwide. Despite these benefits, IUDs have minimal market penetration in the United States where they are expensive, disparaged by an older generation of physicians, and withheld from teenagers, nulliparous women, and women not in mutually monogamous relationships, i.e., those who would most benefit. This article reviews the nearly forgotten history of the IUD that resulted in broadening the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of medical devices, brought needed transparency to physicians’ conflicts of interests, uncovered a corporate scandal with a whistleblower that led to a major pharmaceutical bankruptcy, and involved 327,000 women (though only 195,000 met strict criteria for claims) in the largest US personal injury case.展开更多
THIS year, Women of China asked two 30-year-old women from the Yimeng mountain area in Shandong Province about their chosen methods of birth control. Both women reported using intrauterine devices (IUDs), which they h...THIS year, Women of China asked two 30-year-old women from the Yimeng mountain area in Shandong Province about their chosen methods of birth control. Both women reported using intrauterine devices (IUDs), which they had placed by local gynecologists at the hospital 40 days after giving birth. Are these women aware of other contraceptive methods? Some rural women tell us they know of other methods such as oral contraception, contraceptive implants and tubal ligation.展开更多
文摘Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are the most effective, reversible and longest acting birth control method. They require no effort for compliance and avoid systemic synthetic hormones. Evidence-based effectiveness and safety studies have demonstrated IUDs rival sterilization. IUDs low cost make them the most popular method worldwide. Despite these benefits, IUDs have minimal market penetration in the United States where they are expensive, disparaged by an older generation of physicians, and withheld from teenagers, nulliparous women, and women not in mutually monogamous relationships, i.e., those who would most benefit. This article reviews the nearly forgotten history of the IUD that resulted in broadening the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of medical devices, brought needed transparency to physicians’ conflicts of interests, uncovered a corporate scandal with a whistleblower that led to a major pharmaceutical bankruptcy, and involved 327,000 women (though only 195,000 met strict criteria for claims) in the largest US personal injury case.
文摘THIS year, Women of China asked two 30-year-old women from the Yimeng mountain area in Shandong Province about their chosen methods of birth control. Both women reported using intrauterine devices (IUDs), which they had placed by local gynecologists at the hospital 40 days after giving birth. Are these women aware of other contraceptive methods? Some rural women tell us they know of other methods such as oral contraception, contraceptive implants and tubal ligation.
