Based on a new study, as many as 2.2 million women worldwide could find themselves pregnant on an IUD every year. Researchers were surprised to discover through this large-scale study that the generally accepted ultra-low failure rates of long-acting contraceptives have long been misrepresented, even by the CDC.
It’s not easy to dive into the endless stories of young women whose lives have been put on hold by an unnecessary injury from birth control, or worse, to hear their stories from the survivors they left behind.
When it gets worse before it gets better Kristina, who took Depo Provera injections for about a year, stopped because of repeated and severe urinary tract infections. Once her final Depo injection wore off, her troubles weren’t over. She reported going through “terrible withdrawals,” with migraines, constipation, diarrhea, weight gain, hemorrhoids, back, side, stomach issues, and severe breast pain. Six months…
Painful IUD insertion a warning sign “It’s not just the pain; it’s also the deep biological sense that something in your body that should not be messed with is being aggravated, activating what I can only describe as a fight-or-flight response where you can actually do neither, since the threat is inside of you,” writes Casey Johnston of her experience…
How hormonal disruption leads to immune suppression “Depo Provera is the only contraceptive to mimic cortisol in the body, which makes its side effects really serious,” said Dr. Joel Brind, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Human Biology and Endocrinology at Baruch College of the City University of New York. Depo has been shown to increase a woman’s risk of both loss…
Legal action against the Paragard copper IUD picking up speed Numerous lawyers are now investigating wrongdoing in the design, manufacture, and marketing of the Paragard IUD, citing negligence in promoting a flawed device while failing to warn users of the dangers. As they bring legal actions against the manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and CooperSurgical, who recently bought the Paragard birth control …
A few weeks ago, a young woman (we’ll call her Maya) reached out to me after I shared an article I had written for IUDAlert titled: Depo-Provera is more than a Method of Birth Control—It’s a Means of Controlling Women in the “Depo Provera Side Effects” group on Facebook. In Maya’s message she stated, “Was on it for 6 years as a…
Unbeknownst to many women, there is a chance that once placed, your intrauterine device (IUD) might not stay put. Some of the ways women may experience complications with movement of their IUDs are IUD expulsion, IUD migration, and uterine or organ perforation by their IUDs. An IUD can be expelled from the uterus entirely (expulsion), or move within the uterus…
As a women’s health advocate, educator, and activist, I have followed the evolution of birth control over the last 35 years. I have witnessed a particularly troubling change as women have gone from being “in control” of early birth control methods like the pill, condom, and diaphragm, to newer methods (particularly in the class of long-acting reversible contraceptives, or LARCs)…
Among the most severe potential complications of an IUD are the risks of perforation, infection, and/or expulsion of the device. While these complications are purported to be rare, stories in popular media and articles in medical journals highlight that such risks with an IUD do exist. For the women who encounter those complications, the experience can be both devastating and blindsiding. In a recent article from the journal Images…