GRIN AND BEAR IT

Why haven't we figured out how to make IUDs less excruciating?

- RUTH MURAI

ON A SCALE Of I to 10, Sarah Holzer considered the pain of breaking her tailbone a definite 10. That is, until 12 years later, when, at 27, she went in for her IUD insertion. She was nervous as she waited in the doctor's office, having heard from friends that it might be painful, but she had been assured at her previous appointment that it would be just a quick pinch. When it came time for the procedure, the nurse held down her shoulders, pinning her to the table, and that was when Holzer realized it was really going to hurt. She ended up blacking out from the pain. Immediately afterward, she threw up. "Once I got an IUD," she told me, her pain scale changed. "A bone break to me is maybe now like a 2.'

The IUD is one of the most effective birth-control devices on the market, and the copper version is the only widely available non-hormonal option besides barrier methods like condoms or diaphragms. According to the CDC, more than 8 percent of women ages 15 to 49 are using IUDS, or intrauterine devices, as of 2019. As pro-life groups continue their assault on abortion access, IUDS may soon become even more popular-because they can last for up to a decade.

To place an IUD, a provider inserts a speculum and then usually uses a tenaculum, a device that resembles a pair of scissors with hooked ends, to stabilize the cervix before inserting the IUD through the opening of the cervix and into the uterus. The process takes about five minutes, but the experience of insertion can be excruciating.