A new study has found that the intrauterine device (IUD, or coil) is safe, and that women who use an IUD as a contraceptive are at no higher risk of becoming infertile. IUDs were a popular contraceptive in the 1970s, when it is estimated that 20 per cent of women who attended family planning clinics used them. This dropped to six per cent by 1999.
Women stopped using the IUD after the device was linked to ectopic pregnancies, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and infertility. The new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was conducted in Mexico. Nearly 2000 women were studied, and it was found that previous use of a copper IUD did not link to infertility caused by infection.
The researchers found that women who had had previous infections of Chlamydia have more than double the risk of tubal infertility than women who had never been infected and use an IUD. This suggests that it is not IUDs themselves that cause infertility-causing infections, but sexually transmitted diseases passed on by humans.
The news has been welcomed by the UK's Family Planning Association (FPA). Toni Belfield, of the FPA, said 'the IUD is under-used and under-discussed. The myth says IUDs cause infection; the reality is people cause infection'.
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