Worldwide IUDs are a much more popular when compared the United States. This can be attributed to several cultural and historical differences in the United States. The most common misconceptions about IUDs in the United States are that IUDs increase risks of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, should not be used with those that have not given birth yet, or will cause infertility. These misconceptions can be traced to the controversy surrounding the Dalkon Shield IUD failure in the 1970s. The Dalkon Shield was an IUD produced and heavily marketed in the 1970s despite manufacturers knowing that there were severe medical risks of using the device.
Because of the design of the IUD, almost octopus looking, it was more likely to lodge in or perforate the uterus wall. Additionally, the multifilament string could carry infections from the vagina into the uterus. These infections cause serious problems of their own, but coupled with the perforate uterus’ walls, can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, septic abortion, ectopic pregnancy, or infertility. At this time medical devices were loosely regulated and the research trials done on the Dalkon Shield were done by a researched who would also benefit from sales as a stakeholder. Once the device hit the market, thousands of people began suffering from PID and septic pregnancies leading to the deaths of fetuses and parents alike. The device was released in 1971 and by 1974 it was pulled from the market. The company, A. H. Robins Company, paid millions in settling class action lawsuits. The backlash against this single device became a backlash against IUDs in general and spawned decades of skepticism of the devices.
Soon after the Dalkon Shield backlash, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) responded to the controversy by requiring new medical devices, such as IUDs, to be regulated and FDA approved before reaching the market. That is why today IUDs are incredibly safe because they go through years of research and regulation before becoming publically available. Ironically, these regulations increased the price of the IUDs making the devices less readily affordable. The increase in price combined with the stigma from the Dalkon Shield created a market historically hostile to IUDs in the United States.
Where does the recent rise in IUDs come from then? Over the past couple of decades, new research into IUDs have dispelled the misconceptions held in the medical community and released new IUD brands in the United States that suit a wider variety of bodies. After the increase in regulations, the only IUD to consistently be available in the United States market is ParaGuard, a copper IUD, approved in 1984. ParaGuard lasts for approximately 12 years and is typically larger in size, so most medical professionals would not previously prescribe it for those that have not yet given birth. The newer IUDs, Mirena approved in 2000 and Skyla approved in 2013, are hormonal IUDs and smaller in size. Because they are smaller in size, medical professions became more willing to prescribe them to smaller people or those that have not yet given birth. With an increased confidence of the devices safety and effectiveness in the medical community, the public community slowly followed.
Y-IUDS? 