Three in ten women do not want an IUD due to fear of pain during procedure, study shows

Three in ten women are afraid of the pain of placing an IUD and have, therefore, avoided this type of contraception in the last five years. Research conducted by Ipsos I&O showed that one in four women would consider an IUD if stronger painkillers were available. The research was commissioned by the client advocacy organization Ava, who has been pleading for stronger painkillers for a while.

The researchers also reported the number of women who felt pain when placing an IUD. Half of the people who placed an IUD indicated that they felt “unbearable pain” or “severe pain.” A quarter said that they had an average amount of pain when going through the procedure, while four percent said they felt no pain at all. The rest had little or bearable pain.

Women who have not been through childbirth were more often in pain when placing an IUD, and the pain was also more severe in most cases. Around 20 percent of women with a copper or hormone IUD said they would not consider an IUD again. It was mainly the women who felt severe pain when placing an IUD who said that they did not want an IUD again in the future.

Most women are prescribed paracetamol followed by Ibuprofen as pain relief. One in five women was not prescribed any painkillers by their healthcare provider, the research shows.

Ava criticized the guidelines for painkillers after having placed an IUD last year. The guidelines have naproxen and paracetamol as recommended painkillers, but Ava thinks that these are “only limited in effectiveness according to recent studies.” Foreign media outlets have also reported many stories about pain during the IUD placement.

This has led to advice regarding the procedure being altered in the United States, and new painkiller options have been suggested. This led the Nederlands Huisartsen Genootschap (NHG), which is the Dutch Society of General Practitioners, to review its guidelines on the matter. The NHG does not yet know when this review will be completed. A spokesperson has said that there is no definitive date for this.

Ava’s chair, Alina Chakh, feels that these women’s stories have to be taken seriously. “At Ava, we have been receiving stories of women experiencing intense pain when placing and removing an IUD for years,” she said.

A total of 2,780 women were a part of the research. Around 584 of them had a copper or hormone IUD in the last five years. The questions to women without an IUD were asked to 574 women in another group.

Women under the age of 24 and women with a lower level of education were underrepresented in the research.