New IUD Guidelines You Need to Know

Healthy SELF, SELF Magazine

Jennifer D'Angelo Friedman,SELF magazine

Implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs) are the "most effective reversible contraceptives" for preventing unplanned pregnancy and abortion in teens and adult women, The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said in a statement on Thursday. That's right -- even better than birth control pills and condoms.

Plus, contraceptive implants (rods implanted in your upper arm that release a steady stream of progestin to prevent ovulation) and IUDs (T-shaped pieces of plastic inserted in the uterus to prevent fertilization) should be offered as "first-line contraceptive options for sexually active adolescents," according to the leading ob-gyn group's new guidelines.

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Of course, women and teens using IUDs or implants for contraception should also use condoms to decrease the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections, the groups adds.

But the new guidelines may be eye-opening to women who have shied away from implants and IUDs in the past. As HealthySELF reported in May, a study published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology showed that of more than 4,100 women who were seeking birth control, about 45 percent overestimated the effectiveness of the pill and condoms, yet these methods remain the most popular forms of contraception in the U.S.

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According to the study, condoms (male and female) account for 18-21 percent of unplanned pregnancies, which is only slightly less than natural family planning at 24 percent. Birth control pills account for 9 percent of unintended pregnancies. Implants and IUDs, on the other hand, have pregnancy rates of less than 1 percent per year, according to ACOG. However, among women who use reversible contraception, most choose condoms (26 percent) and oral contraceptive pills (45 percent), the study found.

Study leader David L. Eisenberg, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, says the default is to provide women seeking contraception with birth control pills -- a paradigm, he believes, that needs to shift.

"When you miss a pill, for example, where you are in your menstrual cycle matters a lot in terms of how likely you are to get pregnant," he told HealthySELF in May. "Whereas, the 'forgettable' types of contraceptives don't need that level of commitment."

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According to Dr. Eisenberg, women and health care providers are both still wary of IUDs, based on history (he says the original IUDs came along with an increased risk for pelvic infection, and, as SELF reports in the April 2012 issue, a flawed study in the 1980s linked IUDs to infertility), not on current reality. "Today's FDA-approved IUDs are safe for essentially all women and they are the most effective contraceptive method, along with implants," he says, yet only about 6 percent of American women use them. Time to chat with your ob-gyn about what's best for YOU!

--April Daniels Hussar contributed to this report.

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