Time to put some copper in your hoo-ha, ladies. A new study has found IUDs and implants to be 20 times more likely to prevent pregnancy than even the birth-control pill.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis conducted the study with 7,486 participants and identified 334 unplanned pregnancies. Contraceptive failure for pills, patches, rings and DMPA injections was 4.55 per “100 participant-years,” whatever that is, compared to 0.27 among participants using long-acting reversible contraception like IUDs and hormonal implants. The results were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A hormonal IUD is effective for five years while a hormone-free copper IUD lasts for 10 years. Hormonal implants are inserted under the skin of the upper arm and are effective for three years.
The study suggests IUDs could be most effective for young people whose rates of unintended pregnancy are much higher than those of older women.
Incidentally, teen pregnancy rates in Canada are in long-term decline. From 1995 to 2005, it fell from 47.6 pregnancies per 1,000 15 to 19-year-old girls to only 29.2 pregnancies per 1,000. (PDF)
There are no good stats on unplanned pregnancies in Canada (some claim as many as 40 per cent of all pregnancies are unplanned, which seems a tad high) but better access to birth control and better sex education can only help. Also, it leads to fewer abortions, which everyone should be OK with.
Science Blog
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