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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.

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Speaker 2: I'm welcome stuff I never told you, obrection if I

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Speaker 2: hurried you. So this is another classic inspired by your

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Speaker 2: recent episode about gynecology, Samantha, because you mentioned in there

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Speaker 2: that they Kristen Caroline, the past host told your story

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Speaker 2: about getting it. Yeah, yes, and so I was like,

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Speaker 2: I wonder what episode.

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Speaker 3: That one is.

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Speaker 2: I yes, I found that episode about IUDs and I

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Speaker 2: was like, must be this one, correct, So I thought,

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Speaker 2: you know, why not bring that one back so people

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Speaker 2: kill can check it out?

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Speaker 3: Perfect?

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Speaker 2: Perfect, Well, please enjoy this classic episode.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff mom never told you from houstuffworks dot com. Hello,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline.

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Speaker 1: And today we're talking about larking at a lark. Yes,

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Speaker 1: not to be confused with LARPing. Let's go larking. We're

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Speaker 1: talking about long acting reversible contraceptioning to make larking work.

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Speaker 3: Oh right, right right yeah, And you and I have

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Speaker 3: been historically evangelists for our larks. Our IUDs are intruderine devices.

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Speaker 1: Which I so often accidentally call either IEDs or UTI's,

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Speaker 1: both of which get a look.

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Speaker 3: Uh dude, roommate when his girlfriend was getting an IUD

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Speaker 3: texted me to say that she was getting an IED

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Speaker 3: and I laughed, and I laughed and I said, I

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Speaker 3: I think you mean i u D. And he said,

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Speaker 3: I think you're wrong. I think she's getting an IED.

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Speaker 1: I really hope not. It's not gonna go Well. If

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Speaker 1: it is, Yeah, intermittent explosive devices that they i stand for.

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Speaker 3: You could argue that it would prevent pregnancy.

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Speaker 1: That that is true. That's one way to go about it.

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Speaker 1: But IUDs are not the only thing we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about in the first half of the podcast. Because

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Speaker 1: IUDs are not the only form of a long acting,

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Speaker 1: reversible contraception. We've also got to talk about the implant

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Speaker 1: and IUDs and birth control. Implants are considered really the

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Speaker 1: gold standard of birth control. And this is according to

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Speaker 1: both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as well

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Speaker 1: as the American Academy of Pediatrics. So doctor people, doctor

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Speaker 1: people in the know, doctor people in the know for

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Speaker 1: human people of all.

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Speaker 3: Ages, right exactly. And it turns out, according to these

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Speaker 3: doctor people in the know, that both iud's and implants

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Speaker 3: are just as effective as sterilization. But of course, they

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Speaker 3: are reversible and not invasive. I mean, one could argue

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Speaker 3: that it does hurt to get an IUD sometimes depending

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Speaker 3: but they're recommended as first line contraceptives.

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Speaker 1: And since two thousand and two, IUD use among American

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Speaker 1: women has quadrupled, And anecdotally I've noticed in the past

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Speaker 1: maybe two or so years, similar to the mainstreaming of menstruation,

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Speaker 1: kind of the mainstreaming of IUDs, everybody's talking about iud's.

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Speaker 3: Oh, mainstreaming of menstruation. Is that what everybody on Twitter

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Speaker 3: is talking about when they do hashtag MSM.

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Speaker 1: Don't I win?

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Speaker 3: Don't we wish? Yeah, it turns out that ten to

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Speaker 3: eleven percent of US women who are on birth control

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Speaker 3: use IUDs, which is up massively from just about one

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Speaker 3: and a half percent in two thousand and two. And

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Speaker 3: it is worth noting side note that forty percent of

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Speaker 3: gynecologists who use contraceptives use.

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Speaker 1: IUDs according to Vox, and over at the Goupmaker Institute,

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Speaker 1: we learned that just one point three percent of American

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Speaker 1: women who use birth control use the implant. So how

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Speaker 1: do these magical devices and contraceptive potions work?

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Speaker 3: Well, Okay, you go out during a supermoon. Uh huh,

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Speaker 3: and you howl into the phone to your gynecologists and

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Speaker 3: make an appointment to get one of these devices, which

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Speaker 3: work extremely well. Now, a lot of people say, oh, well,

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Speaker 3: surely they're not that different in their effectiveness from the pill.

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Speaker 3: But you've got to keep in mind that we are

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Speaker 3: all in perfect people, and when we use the pill

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Speaker 3: or the neuver ring or the patch with typical use

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Speaker 3: as opposed to perfect use, those three things have a

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Speaker 3: nine percent failure right right, And the birth control shot

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Speaker 3: has a six percent failure rate. In other words, that's

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Speaker 3: how many people will still get pregnant despite using those methods.

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Speaker 1: So with that in mind, let's hop into how IUDs work.

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Speaker 1: So there are two main types of IUDs. First up,

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Speaker 1: we've got the original, the old copper IUD brand named Paragard.

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Speaker 1: It can last for up to twelve years twelve years,

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Speaker 1: and this to me is the one that does seem

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Speaker 1: like magic because there are no hormones involved. They just

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Speaker 1: insert this T shaped little little piece of uh copper

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Speaker 1: into your uterus. But what happens is it essentially bathes

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Speaker 1: our uterine linings in copper ions that create and I'm

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Speaker 1: not exaggerating here. It really creates a sperm killing force field,

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Speaker 1: although you can't expect heavier periods. But in exchange for that,

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Speaker 1: that force field creates just a point eight percent failure rate.

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Speaker 3: I am hoping that it also has like that movie

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Speaker 3: magic sound effect when you have like some kind of

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Speaker 3: force field.

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Speaker 1: Of wom you know, wom, woom woom. Are those the

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Speaker 1: sperm running into the force field?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, h for sure. I'm bumping their little heads and

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Speaker 3: being like, never mind, guys, let's get out of here.

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Speaker 1: This also reminds me of those uh you know, those

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Speaker 1: metal bracelets that people wear that are sold like in

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Speaker 1: the back of magazines.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but those don't do anything.

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Speaker 1: I don't think that those create sperm force field.

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Speaker 3: Now, a pair reguard copper IUD can last you three

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Speaker 3: presidential terms. I don't know why I would say anything

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Speaker 3: like that, but I'm just saying three presidential terms.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, two Trump and one Pence. Dear God, I think

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Speaker 1: my uterus just actually withered up and died. Next up,

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Speaker 1: we have the hormonal IUDs, same type of device T shaped,

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Speaker 1: T shaped, little little piece of plastic that goes into

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Speaker 1: your uterus. Brand names include the Marina which I have

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Speaker 1: so do I. It lasts five years. There's also on

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Speaker 1: the market now, Skyla, which lasts three years. And I

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Speaker 1: just learned there are two others called the Liletta and Kylina. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and y'all, Kyleina is spelled k y l e e

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Speaker 1: n A. And I'm just saying that Kylie Jenner is

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Speaker 1: really missing a branding opportunity here. So with these hormonal IUDs,

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Speaker 1: they use a hormonal called levanagestrel that thickens your cervical mucus,

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Speaker 1: which is really the first defense as sperm travel through

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Speaker 1: the cervix on their way to the uterus. So they're like, okay,

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Speaker 1: let's try they get things up, slow it down. And

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Speaker 1: on top of that, it thins out the uterine lining,

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Speaker 1: which makes it super hard for the sperm to travel

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Speaker 1: to and should fertilization happen, for implanting then to then happen.

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Speaker 1: And with those, unlike the copper IUD, you can expect

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Speaker 1: lighter or in my case, TMI alert no periods. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I have actually had both of these, so I can

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Speaker 3: speak to both of them. I started out with the scila.

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Speaker 3: I was instructed or advised to get the Scyla because

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Speaker 3: I am teens tiny inside and also have never given birth,

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Speaker 3: and my gynecologist was like, the smaller one might be

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Speaker 3: better for you. So I had that for three years

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Speaker 3: and I still got a monthly period, but it was very,

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Speaker 3: very light, very light. Now that I have the Marina,

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Speaker 3: I no longer get a monthly period, which is awesome.

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Speaker 3: I still do get PMS symptoms, my boobs get real

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Speaker 3: big and sore.

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Speaker 1: Hashtag humble brag, that's.

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Speaker 3: Right, but yeah, but no period. It's awesome. And what's

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Speaker 3: fabulous is you can really depend on these products. The

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Speaker 3: Morena has a failure rate of just zero point two

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Speaker 3: percent and the skyl Of failure rate is just point

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Speaker 3: four percent.

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Speaker 1: Now, let's quickly, though, take a mythbusting detour to clear

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Speaker 1: up a little bit of misinformation, actually a lot of

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Speaker 1: bit of misinformation that's out there about iud's because this

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Speaker 1: is something anecdotally that I've run into in conversations with

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Speaker 1: more conservative friends of mine in particular, and that I

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Speaker 1: have a feeling a lot of listeners might have seen

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Speaker 1: or heard or might just be worried about. IUDs are

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Speaker 1: not abortifations, and this was something that came up in

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Speaker 1: that Hobby Lobby birth control case that went to the

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court. IU d's were one of the things that

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Speaker 1: the hobby Lobby founders did not want to cover because

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Speaker 1: of the misinformation, the fallacy that IUDs are essentially little

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Speaker 1: abortion machines inside of us.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, let's get something straight real quick. So, pregnancy is

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Speaker 3: when a fertilized egg is implanted, right, But contraceptives prevent

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Speaker 3: fertilization of an egg from happening, or they prevent the

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Speaker 3: implantation of a fertilized egg, which therefore prevents pregnancy. And

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Speaker 3: it turns out, and we talked about this on a

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Speaker 3: long ago episode, the copper IUDs are actually a fabulous

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Speaker 3: emergency contraceptive. Even when used up to five days after intercourse.

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Speaker 3: Those copper IUDs can prevent fertilization and possibly implantation, but

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Speaker 3: they do not disrupt implantation. Therefore, there is a difference there.

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Speaker 3: There is a line between preventing a pregnancy and disrupting

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Speaker 3: a pregnancy. So, like Kristen said, the idea that an IUD,

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Speaker 3: whether it's hormonal or copper, can lead to abortion is

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Speaker 3: again a complete fallacy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and this information too is coming from the American

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Speaker 1: College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. We're not just We're not

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Speaker 1: just reciting NSNBC headlines here, folks, hashtag msn I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to do a callback. So that's the situation

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Speaker 1: with IUDs. We also got to shout out the implants.

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Speaker 1: The brand names are implan On next plan On, and

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Speaker 1: implants are really what they sound like. They are thin

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Speaker 1: plastic match sticks sized progestin dispensers essentially, and progestin is

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Speaker 1: a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone, and these little

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Speaker 1: match sticks are implanted in your upper arm. They last

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Speaker 1: up to four years, and they work by stopping ovulation

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Speaker 1: and again thinning that cervical mucus.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and so when you use an implant, you can

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Speaker 3: expect spotting in the first six months or a year,

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Speaker 3: but one out of three women who have the implant

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Speaker 3: stop having a period all together. And you know, as

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Speaker 3: we've gone along, the failure rate has dropped and dropped

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Speaker 3: and dropped to the point where now if you get

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Speaker 3: an implant, the failure rate is just zero point zero

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Speaker 3: five percent, which is fantastic.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it was a while back and I

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Speaker 1: forget what exactly it was about iud's that you and

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Speaker 1: I were raving about as we do on social media,

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Speaker 1: and there were a few people who helpfully piped up saying, hey, hey,

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Speaker 1: I d's are actually not the most effective, because in fact,

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Speaker 1: it's implants, which I'm even after all the research we've

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Speaker 1: done for this episode, I've walked away still not quite

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Speaker 1: clear on why implants are as rare as they still

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Speaker 1: are today. So if anyone has any intel on that,

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Speaker 1: please give us a shout. And all of this might

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Speaker 1: sound too good to be true, right, I mean, we're

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Speaker 1: just putting these like little match sticks and a little

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Speaker 1: T shaped what's not inside our bodies and our utes

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Speaker 1: are on lockdown? Yeah, y'all, I mean, yeah, that is

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Speaker 1: That is the delightful truth.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really not too good to be true, which

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Speaker 3: warms my freaking heart because so often I feel like

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Speaker 3: we talk about things that are But we're going to

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Speaker 3: cite some research coming out of Colorado that would be

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Speaker 3: fabulous to send to people in your family who perhaps

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Speaker 3: might have quibbles with either birth control itself or contraception

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Speaker 3: and providing it to teens, or the issue of having

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Speaker 3: birth control and contraceptives paid for. And we're going to

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Speaker 3: have all of these sources over at stuffmon've never told

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Speaker 3: you dot com on our source post for this episode,

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Speaker 3: so you can, you know, send those links onto your family.

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Speaker 1: So what happened in Colorado is a number of years back,

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Speaker 1: they received a substantial private grant to fund a program

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Speaker 1: which they launched offering low income teens and young women

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Speaker 1: free IUDs. And what happened is that due to this program,

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Speaker 1: between two thousand and nine and twenty thirteen, Colorado's teen

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Speaker 1: pregnancy rate dropped forty person And also this is important

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Speaker 1: to underline for conservative family members as well, people who

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Speaker 1: are opposed to abortion in general. In addition to the

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Speaker 1: teen pregnancy rate dropping forty percent, literally plummeting, the abortion

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Speaker 1: rate also dropped forty two percent. And in addition to that,

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Speaker 1: people who are not too keen on taxpayer dollars going

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Speaker 1: to subsidize single motherhood food stamp enrollment also dropped by

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Speaker 1: around twenty five percent between twenty ten and twenty thirteen.

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Speaker 1: And that's just looking at the teen pregnancy rate. Pretty

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Speaker 1: Much the same thing happened for single women under twenty

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Speaker 1: five who hadn't completed high school who also qualified for

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Speaker 1: this free IUD program. And money wise, do you understand

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Speaker 1: the impact back onto taxpayers. Each dollar a state health

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Speaker 1: department spends on long acting birth control IUDs or implants

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Speaker 1: translates to five dollars and eighty five cents of Medicaid savings,

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Speaker 1: and Medicaid covers seventy five percent of teen berths. And

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Speaker 1: these are a lot of percentages and numbers that have

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Speaker 1: all tossed out, but TLDR, these IUDs literally changed these

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Speaker 1: young women's lives because the highest teen pregnancy rates were

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Speaker 1: in the lowest income communities, as is often the case,

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Speaker 1: not just in Colorado but across the United States. And

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Speaker 1: the New York Times talked to one woman in particular,

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Speaker 1: who I believe she was one of the women who

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Speaker 1: was under twenty five and hadn't completed high school, and

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Speaker 1: she talked about how due too being able to set

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Speaker 1: and forget this contraception, it allowed her to really set

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Speaker 1: up the life that she wanted for herself, you know,

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Speaker 1: coming out of very disenfranchised circumstances. So Colorado has been

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Speaker 1: a standout example of the power of these long acting

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Speaker 1: reversible contraceptives because by the way, that forty percent drop

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Speaker 1: in teen pregnancy rate is far and away faster than

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Speaker 1: any other states drop in teen pregnancies. Sounds great.

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Speaker 3: I mean, how could anyone not support this?

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Speaker 1: Because people get squeamish when it comes to young women

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Speaker 1: and the government subsidizing birth control, Republicans often aren't fans

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Speaker 1: of it.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, and so this is according to an article

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Speaker 3: about this from Colorado's in PR station. Despite the success

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Speaker 3: of this program, when that private grant money began to

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Speaker 3: run out, the state's GOP ended up blocking a bill

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Speaker 3: to pay for the program with tax money, but they

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Speaker 3: were able to push through two point five million dollars

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Speaker 3: in the state budget for it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm just curious to know from the foundation

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Speaker 1: that delivered that first substantial grant that got the program

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Speaker 1: off the ground, if it's possible that this can happen

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Speaker 1: in other places. But again, this is just a real

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Speaker 1: world example of how these things can really work and

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Speaker 1: not just work for you know, college educated, employed, middle

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Speaker 1: class white ladies like you and me, Caroline. But y'all,

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Speaker 1: it's not all candy and roses. I don't actually know

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Speaker 1: that any of it is candy and roses. Although you

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Speaker 1: your IUD doesn't get you roses, no, just carnations. But

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Speaker 1: as a lot of people listening who are probably yelling

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Speaker 1: at their phone or however they're listening to this podcast

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Speaker 1: right now, all is not perfect when it comes to

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Speaker 1: iud's and implants because every body is different, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to get into some of those not so fun

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Speaker 1: facts when we come right back from a quick break.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so you might imagine that when you are

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Speaker 3: inserting something, inserting birth control into your body, whether it

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Speaker 3: is an IUD into your uterus or an implant into

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Speaker 3: your arm, it's not the same as just popping a

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Speaker 3: birth control pill or wearing a patch. These things can hurt,

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Speaker 3: but we've got to get you the rundown right of

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Speaker 3: what happens when you're getting them. So when it comes

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Speaker 3: to an implant, uh, you get an area on your

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Speaker 3: upper arm numbed, and then the insertion is basically like

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Speaker 3: getting a really big shot, she says, casually, pretending as

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Speaker 3: though she does not pass out when she gets shots.

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Speaker 3: And the insertion, though, is generally faster and anecdotally a

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Speaker 3: little less painful than getting it removed, because getting it

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Speaker 3: removed involves an incision to remove it from underneath your skin. Now,

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Speaker 3: that's pretty straightforward. And it's not that IUD insertion and

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Speaker 3: removal is not straightforward. There's just several more steps when

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Speaker 3: it comes to an IUD.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because instead of putting it in your arm, you

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Speaker 1: gotta get all the way up to your ute. So,

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Speaker 1: and yes, ute is my preferred term for uterus, because

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Speaker 1: why not. So the way that IUDs get inside of

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Speaker 1: us is Unfortunately, it wouldn't be cool if we could

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Speaker 1: like swallow them and they're just like, no, no, no, I'm

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Speaker 1: in your uterus. Nope, that's not how our bodies work.

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Speaker 1: So gynecologists, well, first you gotta go. You gotta get

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Speaker 1: in the stirrups, all right, So you're in the stirrups.

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Speaker 3: You're on a horse.

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Speaker 1: You're on a horse. You gotta find some stables. No, really,

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Speaker 1: you're in the gynecologist room. You're in your stirrups, and

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Speaker 1: the gynecologist is going to use something called a tenaculum

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Speaker 1: clamp to straighten your cervical canal. And they describe the

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Speaker 1: discomfort with this as a pinch. Yeah, Caroline's laughing, because

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Speaker 1: it is quite a pinch. Okay, it's it's quite a pinch.

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Speaker 1: Think about think about a pap smear. They're not comfortable. Now,

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Speaker 1: double or triple a pap smear. You're getting close. So

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Speaker 1: after they straighten your cervical canal, they do something called

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Speaker 1: sounding the uterus, which is a term brand new now

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Speaker 1: to Caroline and me, and sounding the ute is our

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Speaker 1: new battle cry.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, imagine me with a conk shell, but it's actually

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Speaker 3: a uterus.

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Speaker 1: Whenever you want to gather nasty women everywhere, you sound

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Speaker 1: the ute. Actually sounding the uterus, though, is when the

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Speaker 1: doctor inserts a straw sized rod into the uterus to

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Speaker 1: measure its size and angle. And this is really good

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Speaker 1: because they got to figure out the right size for

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Speaker 1: the right sized iu D and the right place to

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Speaker 1: put it so it stays in place, et cetera, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: So so that's how sounding the uterus works. Not to

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Speaker 1: be confused with our battle cry of sounding the ute.

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Speaker 3: Oh okay, well, uh so then your doctor will remove

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Speaker 3: the measuring rod and pop in another rod that actually

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Speaker 3: contains the IUD. Christens making a face, girl, I know,

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Speaker 3: and it's because of.

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Speaker 1: Pop in I think, just popping it in.

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Speaker 3: Hey, hey, guys, just popping in there. Just popping in

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Speaker 3: with I'm Skyla good In Metscha or Kylina. You can't

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Speaker 3: talk right now, okay, okay, no, because I'm screaming. We're

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Speaker 3: scaring people. We'll give you the low down here in

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Speaker 3: just a second. But so that that second rod comes

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Speaker 3: on up and it has the IUD in it, and

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Speaker 3: the doc positions it in your cervix, sticks it in there,

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Speaker 3: and it's hanging out like the kitten in the hang

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Speaker 3: in there poster in the bottom of your uterus, right

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Speaker 3: at your cervix.

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Speaker 1: Just but it does not feel like claws or inside

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Speaker 1: inside of you. You don't once it's in there.

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Speaker 3: No, yeah, no, no, and and it does it does

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Speaker 3: hurt there. There is a lucky minority for whom this

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Speaker 3: procedure feels like nothing more than a perhap smear followed

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Speaker 3: by some minstrel cramps. Uh. My friend Samantha is one.

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Speaker 1: Of those people.

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Speaker 3: She uh literally went running the same day, went back

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Speaker 3: to work. Yeah, A Christen's making a face.

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Speaker 1: Do I know?

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Speaker 3: Samantha has always had incredibly severe menstrual cramps. She is

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Speaker 3: used to a higher degree of pain than that with

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Speaker 3: which I was accustomed, and so I warned her about

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Speaker 3: the horrific pain that I went through, and she proceeded

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Speaker 3: to make fun of me, probably for about the next

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Speaker 3: year or so. For the middle group of people, it's

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Speaker 3: a moderately painful, yeah, not really painful process.

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Speaker 1: That's most of us. For most people, it's going to

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Speaker 1: be moderately painful.

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Speaker 3: For the rest of us, including your friend Caroline Irvine here,

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Speaker 3: it is severely painful. I absolutely don't want to discourage

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Speaker 3: anyone from getting this procedure done. I think it's important

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Speaker 3: to have really effective birth control, and iud's are incredibly effective,

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Speaker 3: as we have already laid out for you. That being said,

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Speaker 3: I was not one of the lucky ones who had

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Speaker 3: low to moderate pain. I was one of the ones

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Speaker 3: who literally tasted color. I developed apparently circumstantial sinis desia

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Speaker 3: during the procedure. It hurts so badly I threw up.

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Speaker 3: I almost passed out. I made the bad mistake of

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Speaker 3: taking no pain medicine, not even like a tile in all,

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Speaker 3: and it was a nightmare. But the thing is, like

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Speaker 3: they give you the night before you take a medicine

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Speaker 3: that dilates your cervix so that your cervix is open

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Speaker 3: so they can more easily stick the ID in. Then

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Speaker 3: ideally you will take some type of pain medication, and

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Speaker 3: if you are highly, highly anxious or scared, they might

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Speaker 3: prescribe you like a low dose of valume or something

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Speaker 3: along those lines. I will say, and I think this

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Speaker 3: is important to say because I just told this to

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Speaker 3: a friend and colleague the other day, and this is

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Speaker 3: what convinced her after all this time of being afraid

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Speaker 3: to go get this procedure done. When I went to

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Speaker 3: have my Skyla removed so that I could get my morina,

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Speaker 3: the removal felt like nothing.

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Speaker 1: I mean it did.

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Speaker 3: It felt like a pap smear. It was uncomfortable, but

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Speaker 3: not bad. And the insertion of the marina was a

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Speaker 3: little bit more uncomfortable than a perhaps mirror, but I

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Speaker 3: wasn't I didn't taste color. We'll just say that it was.

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Speaker 3: It was really fine. And I don't know if that's

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Speaker 3: because my cervix was like, oh, hey, you, we've seen

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Speaker 3: your kind here before, or if maybe my tail and

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Speaker 3: all was really kicking in that day. But I think

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Speaker 3: it's important to acknowledge that, yes, this can be a

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Speaker 3: very painful procedure. It is very helpful to have someone

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Speaker 3: a partner, a friend, a parent, someone go with you

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Speaker 3: in case you do need to be driven home. But

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Speaker 3: I just really want to hammer home that I don't

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Speaker 3: want you to avoid this procedure just because your pal

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Speaker 3: Caroline throughout the first time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And if you're nervous about pain and have a

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Speaker 1: low pain tolerance, just tell your doctor and uh, they'll

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Speaker 1: prescribe you something. And if anything, definitely take the they're

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Speaker 1: gonna prescribe you probably regardless, like the horsepill, ibuprofen. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so just take that. And even if you don't have

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Speaker 1: someone who can drive you, I survive both times driving myself,

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Speaker 1: so we can do it. Because also the great thing

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Speaker 1: is it is discomfort for I mean in the rest

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Speaker 1: of the day you're crampy, But then you have birth

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Speaker 1: control for five years if you have the marina, which.

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Speaker 3: Is a presidential term plus a year.

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Speaker 1: Yes, which is good, which is good to know. I

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Speaker 1: think my marina right now, I'm on my second one

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Speaker 1: and it should last me right up through the end

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Speaker 1: of Trump. So happy for that. We also don't need

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Speaker 1: to talk about possible side effects after you get this

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Speaker 1: thing implanted, whether it's the IUD or the implant. And

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Speaker 1: this info is coming from Planned Parenthood Vox and again

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Speaker 1: the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. So typically with

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Speaker 1: iud's the main side effects you're going to have are

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Speaker 1: some unpredictable menstrual spotting and bleeding. At first, I experienced this.

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Speaker 1: I'll just leave it at that. You may also experience headaches, nausea, depression,

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Speaker 1: and breast tenderness. Speaking to the depression aspects, IUDs were

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Speaker 1: implicated in a recent study that went viral about birth

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Speaker 1: control and female mental health, and it was particularly like

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Speaker 1: strongly correlated to women getting IUDs and then later getting

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Speaker 1: on antidepressants. Again, there's some correlation causation issue there, but

430
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 1: just something to keep in mind if you struggle with

431
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 1: mental health that it's just something again to just talk

432
00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:50,840
Speaker 1: to your doctor about. Right.

433
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 3: And again, personal experience. Obviously my experience is not everyone's.

434
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 3: But I had been on the pill specifically yaz or

435
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 3: Yasmin for you years, about a decade before I went

436
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 3: on an IUD, and I never had never, never had

437
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 3: PMS with the pill, and I now on an ID,

438
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 3: I do get PMS, and that's again that's not going

439
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,239
Speaker 3: to be the same for everyone. But I noticed that

440
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 3: that was something that changed for me. So things on

441
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 3: an IUD versus the pill versus no birth control whatsoever,

442
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 3: they're not necessarily going to be the same.

443
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 1: And with implants, the major side effects sited include change

444
00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:32,000
Speaker 1: in sex drive. You might see a discoloring or scarring

445
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,120
Speaker 1: of the skin over the implant site. You may also

446
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: experience headache, infections, or pain in the arm, although that's

447
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: very rare, nausea, sore breasts, weight gain. I mean, honestly,

448
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 1: these are side effects that you see with a lot

449
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 1: of hormonal birth controls. And there are some worst case

450
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:54,440
Speaker 1: scenarios though that I know, some stuff Mom never told

451
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 1: you listeners have experienced because you all have told us

452
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 1: about them, specifically IUD expulsion. And this is probably the

453
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:06,959
Speaker 1: most common scary story that you hear when you're, you know,

454
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 1: talking two friends about iud's because for about three to

455
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:16,240
Speaker 1: five percent of people who get them in the first year,

456
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:23,280
Speaker 1: your uterus might be like ha, now girl, Kylie, go

457
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: back to to Cabo. You know, they don't live in Cabo.

458
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,560
Speaker 1: Calabases calabases. I know that, and I'm ashamed of that,

459
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 1: but that's likely because the gynecologists didn't insert it correctly.

460
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 1: If you're concerned about this though, watch out for cramping

461
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: because that that might be a sign that your your

462
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 1: uterus is not happy, and they're also in much rarer

463
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 1: cases perforations that can happen. Your IUD can actually puncture

464
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 1: your uterine wall, which could potentially harm your bladder and

465
00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 1: intestine and if left untreated, lead to hemorrhaging and sepsis.

466
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 1: But that sounds awful, it is awful, Take heart, It

467
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: is very very very rare. It is about zero point

468
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 1: one percent expulsion rate chance with.

469
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 3: That, and these are just more even more reason to

470
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 3: make sure that you stick to your follow up appointment.

471
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 3: Usually your gynecologist will request that you come in about

472
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:27,080
Speaker 3: a month after the fact to just make sure that

473
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 3: everything is where he or she left it. Basically, that's

474
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 3: how my doctor put it. Another worst case scenario involves

475
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 3: a slightly elevated risk of pelvic inflammatory disease in the

476
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:44,320
Speaker 3: first twenty days after you get your IUD inserted, and

477
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 3: when it comes to implants, incorrect insertion can cause discomfort

478
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 3: and ineffectiveness, and in the very very very super rare

479
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 3: case of pregnancy with one of these long acting reversible contraceptives,

480
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 3: you do have an element risk of ectopic pregnancy. When

481
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 3: I put the call out on Twitter to let people

482
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 3: know that we were going to be talking about this

483
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 3: and they were welcome to send us their questions, their concerns,

484
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 3: we did have one listener who said, yes, I was

485
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:16,720
Speaker 3: one of those people who had to endure an ectopic pregnancy.

486
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,479
Speaker 3: So the risk is there, and again it is very small.

487
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 1: Now in terms of who shouldn't get one of these,

488
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: especially for iud's people with untreated STIs, no, because insertion

489
00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: can promote pelvic infection. Also, a good gynecologist is probably

490
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: going to make sure that you're tested before going anywhere

491
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 1: near insertion. Speaking of pelvic infection, not surprisingly if you

492
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 1: have a recent history with those not going to be

493
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 1: a good idea. People with untreated cervical or uterine cancers,

494
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: and with the implants, people with breast cancer are advised

495
00:32:55,800 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 1: against getting them. And speaking of STIs, it is worth

496
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: emphasizing that even though it these these wonderful things dramatically

497
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:10,840
Speaker 1: reduce our chances of getting pregnant, they do nothing to

498
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 1: reduce your chance of contracting st I. So you know,

499
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 1: don't throw away your condoms folks. And we should also

500
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:23,480
Speaker 1: mention when it comes to having sex with IUDs that

501
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 1: at the bottom of these little T shaped devices there

502
00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 1: are some strings that hang down, just a little tiny strings,

503
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: And if your sexual partner is like I think I

504
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: can feel the string, that's probably okay. It's it's not

505
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 1: terribly surprising, especially for digital penetration. But you might also

506
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:49,479
Speaker 1: want to monitor your string because if you can't feel

507
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 1: them at all, because you can actually yourself reach up

508
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: and probably feel them, and if you can't feel them

509
00:33:57,880 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 1: at all after the first few months, you might just

510
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: want to call your doctor to see if you need

511
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 1: to come in, just to ensure that it hasn't been

512
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: knocked out of place or that it's been expelled. I've

513
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:12,799
Speaker 1: actually called my doctor before because a partner way back

514
00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:17,879
Speaker 1: when was concerned about feeling the strings, and it was fine.

515
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:19,640
Speaker 1: It was totally fine. You know, just always pick up

516
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: the call, pick up the call and phone your nurse practitioner. Perfect.

517
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:29,680
Speaker 1: So now we know what these things are today and

518
00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: how they work and how effective they are, it's time

519
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 1: to get into the more fascinating story of how they

520
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 1: came to be. And we're going to do that when

521
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 1: we come right back from a quick.

522
00:34:42,719 --> 00:35:00,960
Speaker 3: Break and as we get into this history of the IUD, specifically,

523
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:03,040
Speaker 3: we want to go ahead and give a shout out

524
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:09,040
Speaker 3: to Chikako Takashida, whose dissertation Negotiating Acceptability of the IUD,

525
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 3: Contraceptive Technology, Women's Bodies and Reproductive Politics is a major source.

526
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,239
Speaker 3: It's a very well, as you might imagine, it's a

527
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:19,439
Speaker 3: very in depth dissertation. Does that even need to be said?

528
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,320
Speaker 3: It's full of Chuck's chock full of great information.

529
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:23,240
Speaker 1: Good job.

530
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:28,760
Speaker 3: But basically, iud's have been around for a really long time.

531
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 3: But as we kind of touched on at the top

532
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 3: of the podcast, American women are really just now coming

533
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 3: around to it. It's much more common overseas in Europe

534
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,839
Speaker 3: than it is here, and a lot of that has

535
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 3: to do with some horror stories that we have and

536
00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 3: some terrible things that we endured in the nineteen seventies

537
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:57,439
Speaker 3: thanks to this thing called the Dalkon shield. You also

538
00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 3: have issues in the way, hurdles like in shurance not

539
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 3: covering this device, which can be four hundred dollars or more,

540
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,320
Speaker 3: and just general lack of awareness. I mean, I spoke

541
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:09,799
Speaker 3: with some friends after I got my IUD inserted who

542
00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:14,000
Speaker 3: were still under the impression that IUDs were as dangerous

543
00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 3: as the Delcon shield was back mid century. And so

544
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 3: we will get to that, but let's take a trip

545
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 3: down IUD memory lane first.

546
00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, so just important to note Europeans, by no means

547
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:31,880
Speaker 1: the first folks to figure out that that putting a

548
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:36,440
Speaker 1: physical barrier between your vaginal canal and your uterus can

549
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:43,040
Speaker 1: prevent pregnancy. Since ancient civilization, we have used pessories, we

550
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:46,320
Speaker 1: have used cervical caps, we have used all sorts of

551
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:52,839
Speaker 1: things similar to iud's with a similar kind of strategy

552
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 1: in mind of really blocking the sperm from reaching dim eggs.

553
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 1: But in the late nineteen twenties, even though a doctor

554
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 1: in Japan tenray Ota was doing the exact same kind

555
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:11,360
Speaker 1: of research and development at the exact same time, German

556
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: Ernst Grafenberg, he of g spot fame.

557
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, I always forget that, even though we talked about

558
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 3: him extensively in our Clitteracy episode.

559
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:23,920
Speaker 1: Oll Ernst. So doctor Ernst is a doctor g cited

560
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,360
Speaker 1: as the inventor of the modern IUD, and his was

561
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 1: a small ring made of silkworm gut and coiled silver

562
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:37,880
Speaker 1: that was inserted into the uterus and the cultural climate

563
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:46,320
Speaker 1: in Germany was perfect for Graefenberg to get his proto

564
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:50,440
Speaker 1: IUD on the map because a sex reform movement was afoot,

565
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:56,200
Speaker 1: and he presented as a male doctor his device as

566
00:37:56,440 --> 00:38:02,359
Speaker 1: scientific hashtag credibility.

567
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,759
Speaker 3: But they weren't very effective and they cause a lot

568
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:12,839
Speaker 3: of infections. Turns out silkworm gut not perfect. And once

569
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 3: we get into the nineteen sixties, interest in iud's is

570
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,360
Speaker 3: reignited thanks to the Population Council, which had been established

571
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 3: in nineteen fifty two, and they do remain the number

572
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:31,280
Speaker 3: one developer of IUD and Lark technology. They were actually

573
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 3: initially looking for a pregnancy vaccine and considered the pill

574
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:42,320
Speaker 3: too expensive and user dependent, but there are layers there

575
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 3: to that idea of it being too user dependent.

576
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:49,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, so essentially what's happening are mostly a lot of

577
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 1: white dudes making a lot of classist and racist assumptions

578
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:57,360
Speaker 1: about how poor women, especially women of color, both in

579
00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:00,360
Speaker 1: the United States and in developing countries, simply not be

580
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:05,719
Speaker 1: trusted with their own reproductive health. So they are more

581
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:10,040
Speaker 1: fans of the set it and forget it type of contraception.

582
00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:14,840
Speaker 1: And I didn't do much deep digging on the population Council.

583
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 1: But in general they I mean, their name kind of

584
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:21,879
Speaker 1: says it all. Really they are, I want to say,

585
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 1: an NGO still around whose mission is population control, you know,

586
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 1: and especially focusing in on developing countries and low income areas.

587
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:41,400
Speaker 1: This does start to intersect, especially around this time, with

588
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:47,440
Speaker 1: eugenicis philosophy, and again just a lot of classism and racism.

589
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:52,320
Speaker 1: But nonetheless they were the pioneers, the scientific pioneers of

590
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:56,480
Speaker 1: the IUD, and in nineteen sixty two they hosted the

591
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: first international conference on the IUD.

592
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 3: I bet they had great swag, all the goodie bags

593
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:07,799
Speaker 3: full of silkworm gut. How do I get through all

594
00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:09,080
Speaker 3: what's at the bottom.

595
00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:12,960
Speaker 1: It's just cigars, because it's just all it's all dudes. Really,

596
00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 1: I mean, like in this paper at least, I only

597
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:19,279
Speaker 1: read about dudes doing this scientific research. And that's like

598
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:24,279
Speaker 1: another little question mark in my brain of you know,

599
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: what what is what is really? What is really the intent?

600
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:32,800
Speaker 1: But anyway we'll get we'll get into the more feminist

601
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,719
Speaker 1: lens that people have looked at this R and D

602
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 1: through in just a second.

603
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:41,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, but a question mark was one was not one

604
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 3: of the shapes of early IUDs, but there were several others.

605
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 3: Early iu d's were rings, bows, loops, coils. All of

606
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:53,920
Speaker 3: these different shapes were patented. And you even had this

607
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 3: crazy straw looking thing, this loop, that became the go to.

608
00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, the lip is became what they thought was going

609
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:08,200
Speaker 1: to be the key to population control in developing nations

610
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:13,400
Speaker 1: in particular. And listeners, imagine your head. How the IUD

611
00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 1: today is very small, It's t shaped. The lip is

612
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:24,480
Speaker 1: loop is just this zigzag back and forth and back

613
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:25,000
Speaker 1: and forth.

614
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,319
Speaker 3: That looks it's really there to confuse the sperm more

615
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:29,400
Speaker 3: than anything.

616
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:33,640
Speaker 1: You think, So it just it looks incredibly painful. But

617
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,360
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad that it is not the current design.

618
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:44,879
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty nine, though, Population Council affiliated Chilean scientist

619
00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:48,320
Speaker 1: Jack Zipper, who has the best name of this podcast

620
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:51,839
Speaker 1: so far, Jack the Zipper, Jack the Zipper Hold. Jack

621
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:57,000
Speaker 1: the Zipper discovers the anti fertility effects of copper. He

622
00:41:57,080 --> 00:42:01,279
Speaker 1: was doing some research on fertility in rabbits and realizes, hmm,

623
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:07,200
Speaker 1: this copper is a really effective contraceptive. Hello, proto parreguard

624
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:08,840
Speaker 1: copper IUD.

625
00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:10,879
Speaker 3: Woom, that's the force field again.

626
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:12,120
Speaker 1: The sperm forest field.

627
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:16,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, but when you hit the nineteen seventies and eighties,

628
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 3: there's a bit of a drop off because of the

629
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 3: nightmare that was the Dalkon Shield disaster. So this scary

630
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:31,880
Speaker 3: looking thing which can look like a cartoon eye with eyelashes.

631
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,919
Speaker 3: It can also look like a bacterium or some kind

632
00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 3: of fishing lure, depending on which way you hold it.

633
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:45,440
Speaker 3: It was used by nearly three million women, and not

634
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 3: only did it sometimes fail to prevent pregnancy, but it

635
00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 3: injured about two hundred thousand women. It caused infertility, and

636
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 3: fifteen women died.

637
00:42:56,239 --> 00:43:00,120
Speaker 1: Fifteen women died in the process of miscarriage because of

638
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,000
Speaker 1: this Dalkon shield. And the thing is I had known

639
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:06,320
Speaker 1: about the Dalcon shield by name for years, but researching

640
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:08,960
Speaker 1: for this episode was the first time I actually saw it.

641
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:14,279
Speaker 1: And seeing is believing. Y'all google Dalcon Shield d A

642
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 1: L K O N because how ugh it It just

643
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 1: looks very It just looks very painful because there are

644
00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:26,400
Speaker 1: these little like protrusions off of it, and it just

645
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 1: looks like it would cut you up. But surprisingly, it

646
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:35,560
Speaker 1: wasn't this frightening looking evil eye design that caused all

647
00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:41,400
Speaker 1: the problems, but likelier, the thread that served as just

648
00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 1: a bacterial infection canal, instigating all of these pelvic infections

649
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 1: that led to so many problems as a result, especially

650
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: in the eighties, as the company that released the Dalcon

651
00:43:57,080 --> 00:44:00,840
Speaker 1: shield was just flooded with lawsuits and Sheer company is

652
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,440
Speaker 1: just moonwalk away. They're like, nope, we are out of

653
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 1: the IUD game. But that's the US.

654
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:16,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, overseas, same game was not happening. China, for instance,

655
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:19,680
Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy nine establishes its one child policy, So

656
00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:22,800
Speaker 3: basically the propaganda and the policies that were being pushed

657
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:25,640
Speaker 3: were like, hey, you've had one child, go with an IUD.

658
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 3: Oh hey, you've had to be sterilized.

659
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: So that's that right. But there was, you know, as

660
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:36,960
Speaker 1: all of this Dalkon shield nightmare was happening in the US,

661
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:42,840
Speaker 1: China was definitely on the forefront of developing the IUD,

662
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:47,880
Speaker 1: which in nineteen seventy nine, when the program was kicked off,

663
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 1: they had gone to the Population Council and had been like, hey,

664
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:54,520
Speaker 1: what are y'all working on? We need something? Oh yeah,

665
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:57,520
Speaker 1: this IUD thing. So it was fascinating to see how

666
00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:03,520
Speaker 1: all of this globally is starting to weave together back

667
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,600
Speaker 1: to the United States. In nineteen eighty eight, after a

668
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:10,239
Speaker 1: couple years where IUDs were nowhere to be found in

669
00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:14,560
Speaker 1: the US, the Paraguard the copper IUD was made available

670
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:19,799
Speaker 1: to American uteruses once again, and in the nineties the

671
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:23,880
Speaker 1: Marina which Caroline and I have was developed in Europe

672
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:28,200
Speaker 1: and became super popular quite quickly. Twenty three percent of

673
00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:31,719
Speaker 1: French women on birth control today, for instance, use IUDs.

674
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:36,759
Speaker 1: Twenty seven percent of Norwegian women on birth control use IUDs.

675
00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:40,000
Speaker 1: All of this to say that IUD use in the

676
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:44,760
Speaker 1: US at what ten eleven percent right now is still

677
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:48,160
Speaker 1: so much lower than use abroad.

678
00:45:48,239 --> 00:45:50,520
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and I mean the FDA was watching for

679
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:53,320
Speaker 3: about a decade what was happening in Europe, essentially making

680
00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:55,400
Speaker 3: sure that there was not going to be another Delcon

681
00:45:55,480 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 3: shield nightmare of death and injury and unexpected regnancy. And

682
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 3: so I was actually ignorant of that fact that the

683
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:13,080
Speaker 3: Marina and it's like weren't even available until the new millennium.

684
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:16,839
Speaker 3: I kind of just had thought that they had been

685
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:18,759
Speaker 3: around for and they have been around for longer, but

686
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:21,120
Speaker 3: I mean available especially with insurance.

687
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:23,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and for a while too, even when

688
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:27,760
Speaker 1: they were made available again, most doctors wouldn't allow women

689
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:31,359
Speaker 1: who had been pregnant before to use them. They were

690
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:35,320
Speaker 1: all sorts of concerns, understandably, you know, because fifteen women

691
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:39,560
Speaker 1: died hello, But there were a lot of concerns around

692
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:43,040
Speaker 1: whether they were truly safe. And it turns out yes

693
00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:46,239
Speaker 1: they are. But interestingly, as we learned from a Time

694
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:49,840
Speaker 1: magazine piece, when the Marina was first marketed in the US,

695
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:54,880
Speaker 1: it was targeted at moms, basically being like, we know,

696
00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:57,439
Speaker 1: y'all don't have time to take a pill every day,

697
00:46:57,680 --> 00:46:58,920
Speaker 1: you're busy with your kids.

698
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:01,719
Speaker 3: Well well yeah, I mean there is that side of

699
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:04,359
Speaker 3: it of like you don't have time to worry about

700
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:06,400
Speaker 3: your birth control. But there's also the side of like,

701
00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:10,840
Speaker 3: we are specifically marketing to moms over single women. We

702
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:16,760
Speaker 3: don't want to promote this birth control to single women

703
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:20,400
Speaker 3: and have people just willing nilly ditch condoms, for instance,

704
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:23,480
Speaker 3: or think that they can just have unproductive sex forever.

705
00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 1: Unproductive sex. Unproductive sex, yeah, as in not having kids sex.

706
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:32,080
Speaker 1: But that's the case today, I mean, thankfully, Like are

707
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:35,080
Speaker 1: people are all about id's and I wonder if that

708
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:39,840
Speaker 1: is at all correlated to like the growing population of

709
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: female obgyns, just just a thought. If anyone knows, let

710
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 1: me know. So, what's not to love about all of

711
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:56,719
Speaker 1: this technology? Well, there are some feminist scholars who have

712
00:47:56,840 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: interpreted their development and use, particularly as it relates to

713
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:07,600
Speaker 1: the Population Council and their implementation in developing countries and

714
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:14,400
Speaker 1: promotion among poor women in particular, as coercive and even violent.

715
00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:19,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, we read a lot in the dissertation about sort

716
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:24,120
Speaker 3: of this history of forcing women to be either sterilized

717
00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:30,239
Speaker 3: or to have some type of contraceptive to limit expanding families.

718
00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:32,480
Speaker 3: Whereas here in the West we tend to view it

719
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 3: as a way to control our lives. In a lot

720
00:48:36,239 --> 00:48:41,560
Speaker 3: of countries, regions like Indonesia or India, it's viewed more

721
00:48:41,680 --> 00:48:45,560
Speaker 3: as almost punishment, as a way to control women.

722
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:50,120
Speaker 1: Well China, hellow, I mean that's like state propaganda right there.

723
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:54,160
Speaker 1: I mean they refer to it as state imposed fertility control,

724
00:48:54,239 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 1: where it's not you know, white women like jumping up

725
00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:03,440
Speaker 1: in the air choosing our choice, but rather the government

726
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:06,520
Speaker 1: choosing your choice for you. And again going back to

727
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:10,600
Speaker 1: those you know, classiest and racist elements of you know,

728
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:13,120
Speaker 1: let us let us choose on your behalf. This set

729
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,520
Speaker 1: and forget it kind of thing, because you probably don't

730
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:22,160
Speaker 1: have the wherewithal to do for yourself. So and this

731
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:26,839
Speaker 1: was an area, these these biopolitics, feminist biopolitics, were something

732
00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:31,320
Speaker 1: that I hadn't read before, and I'm curious to read

733
00:49:31,480 --> 00:49:36,200
Speaker 1: more about also because a lot of that information and

734
00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:40,720
Speaker 1: that perspective was coming out more in the late nineties

735
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:44,239
Speaker 1: early two thousands, And I'm curious to know whether there

736
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:49,480
Speaker 1: is still a similar sentiment now that iud's are more

737
00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:54,200
Speaker 1: common and more affordable in the US in particular, but

738
00:49:54,239 --> 00:49:57,080
Speaker 1: there are also still a lot of barriers to use,

739
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:02,799
Speaker 1: especially in developing countries, even though it is recommended by

740
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:08,400
Speaker 1: the World Health Organization because increasing iuduse could be a

741
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:14,960
Speaker 1: major boon to maternal health and of course managed population control. Still,

742
00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:19,920
Speaker 1: as of twenty fifteen, according to NPR, sixty one percent

743
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:23,560
Speaker 1: of women in developing nations have unmet family planning.

744
00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:26,800
Speaker 3: Needs right and so many of them, more than fifty percent,

745
00:50:26,920 --> 00:50:31,560
Speaker 3: get pregnant within two years of having the previous child.

746
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:36,000
Speaker 3: The important aspect of that stat being and many do

747
00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:38,439
Speaker 3: not want to Many want to wait, and the World

748
00:50:38,480 --> 00:50:43,160
Speaker 3: Health Organization does urge people in general to wait to

749
00:50:44,520 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 3: i guess let their bodies recover essentially, especially if you've

750
00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:51,040
Speaker 3: had a traumatic childbirth. But some of the hurdles that

751
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:54,399
Speaker 3: people are up against are things like menstrual taboos and

752
00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:59,840
Speaker 3: very real sterilization fears, because we do have this his

753
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:04,920
Speaker 3: street globally of forcing women, particularly women of color, to

754
00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:06,480
Speaker 3: be sterilized.

755
00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:09,360
Speaker 1: And Jill Philipovic a couple of years ago wrote a

756
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:15,120
Speaker 1: terrific in depth piece for Cosmopolitan about the situation of,

757
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:20,640
Speaker 1: or the challenge really of getting IUD access to women

758
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:24,920
Speaker 1: in rural India because they tend to opt for the

759
00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:30,880
Speaker 1: pill over the paraguard. When it comes to iud's being sent,

760
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:34,400
Speaker 1: you know, through nonprofits and NGOs, it's usually going to

761
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: be the copper IUD because it is much cheaper than

762
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 1: the hormonal version, as you might imagine, And in these areas,

763
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:47,759
Speaker 1: the pill is chosen because what the paraguard. Remember that

764
00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:53,040
Speaker 1: one of the major side effects is heavier periods, And

765
00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:57,120
Speaker 1: if you are in a developing area, you might already

766
00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: have entrenched menstrual taboos. But I mean, if you're on

767
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:04,800
Speaker 1: your period because of that, you can't do anything really,

768
00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:07,160
Speaker 1: I mean, it like puts you out of commission. And

769
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:11,759
Speaker 1: they literally cannot afford to do that right exactly.

770
00:52:11,880 --> 00:52:15,640
Speaker 3: And you've also got the issue of the difficulty of

771
00:52:15,719 --> 00:52:20,760
Speaker 3: insertion even right after childbirth. And you know, another benefit

772
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:23,080
Speaker 3: of course of the paraguard is it can remain in

773
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:27,120
Speaker 3: for so much longer, so there isn't the every three

774
00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:30,239
Speaker 3: years or every five years. Even there's that nice ten

775
00:52:30,280 --> 00:52:33,439
Speaker 3: to twelve year stretch where you can just I mean,

776
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:35,160
Speaker 3: you can just set it and forget it. Not to

777
00:52:35,200 --> 00:52:41,440
Speaker 3: sound globe, but there have been developments. There is this

778
00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:44,880
Speaker 3: new easy to use quote unquote IUD insert or developed

779
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:49,840
Speaker 3: by Population Services International, which I feel like these names

780
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:53,520
Speaker 3: need to be improved. Doesn't Population Services International sound like

781
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:54,960
Speaker 3: something out of nineteen eighty four.

782
00:52:55,239 --> 00:52:58,720
Speaker 1: I think they're related to the old school Population Council.

783
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 3: Well, all right then, but this new inserter could make

784
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:07,800
Speaker 3: IUDs more accessible and on top of that lowered the

785
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:12,560
Speaker 3: chances of getting IUD related infections. The expulsion rates are

786
00:53:12,600 --> 00:53:14,959
Speaker 3: still comparable to those in the US right now.

787
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:19,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, and those easy to use inserters are super important

788
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,960
Speaker 1: in those areas where you aren't going to have just

789
00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:28,640
Speaker 1: you know, a buffet of trained obstetricians and perfectly sterilized

790
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:35,720
Speaker 1: areas and instruments to use, and apparently the existing inserter

791
00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:39,120
Speaker 1: that tends to come with a mariner or paraguard is

792
00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:41,000
Speaker 1: really flimsy and kind of hard to use if you

793
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:42,280
Speaker 1: don't really know what you're doing.

794
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:44,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not as long as as would be ideal.

795
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:48,000
Speaker 3: And they mentioned I think this was still from Philipovic's article.

796
00:53:48,080 --> 00:53:53,760
Speaker 3: Right she she mentions how right now in the study,

797
00:53:54,719 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 3: when IUDs are inserted with these these new inserters that

798
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:02,640
Speaker 3: have been developed, the doctors leave the strings long still

799
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:05,319
Speaker 3: after childbirth and want you to come back like a

800
00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:08,120
Speaker 3: week or two later. But even that is still a

801
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:11,920
Speaker 3: barrier to overcome. Researchers and developers still want to get

802
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:15,879
Speaker 3: it down to no, we just we do just set

803
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:18,480
Speaker 3: it and forget it, and that we do insert it

804
00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:20,640
Speaker 3: and you go back to your life, You go back

805
00:54:20,640 --> 00:54:22,520
Speaker 3: to your village or wherever, and you don't have to

806
00:54:22,560 --> 00:54:25,120
Speaker 3: worry about coming back to find a healthcare provider to

807
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:26,640
Speaker 3: trim those IUD strings.

808
00:54:26,760 --> 00:54:31,520
Speaker 1: And most often that does happen right after childbirth. You know,

809
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:34,600
Speaker 1: they come in to have the baby and like a

810
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:36,600
Speaker 1: lot of women choose to then get a tubal ligation.

811
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:42,359
Speaker 1: For instance, you can then get an IUD inserted. But

812
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:47,480
Speaker 1: here in the US even there's still some mistrust around iud's.

813
00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:51,319
Speaker 1: Of course, there are horror stories because of you know,

814
00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:53,759
Speaker 1: people we might know or have heard about who have

815
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:57,799
Speaker 1: had to deal with those very painful expulsions or even

816
00:54:57,920 --> 00:55:06,600
Speaker 1: rare perforations. And since though the election of Trump and

817
00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:12,719
Speaker 1: even more troublingly, former Indiana Governor Mike Pence as Vice president,

818
00:55:13,880 --> 00:55:18,840
Speaker 1: IUD searches have skyrocketed, skyrocketed, my friends, I am not

819
00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:21,719
Speaker 1: That is not hyperbole. You can see it. You can

820
00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:25,560
Speaker 1: see it in the Google because people are worried about

821
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:28,120
Speaker 1: the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the possible

822
00:55:28,200 --> 00:55:33,200
Speaker 1: repeal of Roe v. Wade and out of pocket hormonal

823
00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:38,640
Speaker 1: IUDs can run you eight hundred dollars. So there have

824
00:55:38,680 --> 00:55:42,000
Speaker 1: been a lot of women ever since that happened, ever

825
00:55:42,040 --> 00:55:48,000
Speaker 1: since November ninth, who have said get an IUD. Yeah.

826
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:50,839
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I posted the question on Facebook of

827
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:54,359
Speaker 3: how many of you out there are thinking about this?

828
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:56,440
Speaker 3: Are in line or on the phone with your doctor

829
00:55:56,520 --> 00:56:00,960
Speaker 3: to get your contraceptives of whatever kind taking of? And

830
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:03,920
Speaker 3: I mean the response was overwhelming from women of all

831
00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:07,040
Speaker 3: ages and backgrounds saying I'm on the phone with my doctor.

832
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:10,280
Speaker 3: I'm calling I'm going to planned parenthood. One woman literally

833
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:13,920
Speaker 3: responded from her doctor's waiting room saying that she was

834
00:56:13,960 --> 00:56:15,040
Speaker 3: getting it taken care of.

835
00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:19,120
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, I mean, this conversation is more relevant than

836
00:56:19,520 --> 00:56:23,880
Speaker 1: ever before, and even though we were only able to

837
00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:28,839
Speaker 1: offer just a tiny snapshot of a more global perspective,

838
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:34,960
Speaker 1: it does go to show how again, reproductive rights are

839
00:56:35,120 --> 00:56:41,520
Speaker 1: very intersectional issue and affect different people in such different ways,

840
00:56:41,560 --> 00:56:48,040
Speaker 1: in the same way as birth control does. So perspectives

841
00:56:48,120 --> 00:56:52,759
Speaker 1: that you can share insights, questions, send them to us.

842
00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:56,320
Speaker 1: Mom staff at HowStuffWorks dot com is our email address.

843
00:56:56,600 --> 00:56:58,920
Speaker 1: You can tweet us at mom Stuff Podcasts. You can

844
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:04,320
Speaker 1: directly tweet and follow me at Kristin Conger.

845
00:57:04,800 --> 00:57:08,879
Speaker 3: And me Caroline Irvin at the Caroline IRV.

846
00:57:08,719 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 1: And we've got a couple of messages to share with

847
00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:12,040
Speaker 1: you right now.

848
00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:20,600
Speaker 3: Per well, actually, to be honest, we just have one

849
00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:24,320
Speaker 3: letter to read and it's from Allison. So. Allison saw

850
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:27,920
Speaker 3: on social media that Kristin and I were gearing up

851
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:31,600
Speaker 3: to do an episode on iud's and she, a fellow

852
00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 3: IUD evangelist, had to write in. She says, I'm not

853
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:38,880
Speaker 3: a medical professional or IUD salesperson. However, I am the

854
00:57:38,880 --> 00:57:42,920
Speaker 3: owner of one set of lady parts, my Lady Parts.

855
00:57:43,840 --> 00:57:46,920
Speaker 3: Alison writes. When I started college, I was prescribed the

856
00:57:47,120 --> 00:57:50,240
Speaker 3: pill for irregular MINSI since back in my day you

857
00:57:50,240 --> 00:57:52,840
Speaker 3: couldn't get it covered if it was just for stopping babies.

858
00:57:53,320 --> 00:57:55,680
Speaker 3: And to make a long story short, the hormonal birth

859
00:57:55,720 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 3: control really made me sick, serious depression, weight gain, moodswingsh

860
00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:04,280
Speaker 3: and debilitating cramps. One time, I remember handing my roommate

861
00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:06,480
Speaker 3: my car keys while I curled up on my floor

862
00:58:06,520 --> 00:58:09,000
Speaker 3: after class, telling her to just take the car where

863
00:58:09,040 --> 00:58:11,400
Speaker 3: she needed to go. I can't sit up. I took

864
00:58:11,440 --> 00:58:13,920
Speaker 3: it four more years because I don't know doctors are

865
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:18,000
Speaker 3: smarter than me. I was not living my empowered truth. Eventually,

866
00:58:18,080 --> 00:58:21,640
Speaker 3: I eschewed hormonal birth control altogether because my side effects

867
00:58:21,680 --> 00:58:24,080
Speaker 3: were so bad. But I met an Englishman in two

868
00:58:24,160 --> 00:58:26,440
Speaker 3: thousand and nine and I needed to get birth control

869
00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:30,880
Speaker 3: stat After talking to my amazing lady obgyn who sets

870
00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:33,680
Speaker 3: my heart alight, and doing a little research, I told

871
00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:36,240
Speaker 3: her I wanted to try the IUD even though I

872
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:39,320
Speaker 3: am nella Paris. I wanted to try the IUD for

873
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:43,760
Speaker 3: a variety of reasons, but most importantly, I wanted something effective,

874
00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:47,240
Speaker 3: easy to use, and easy to reverse. Oh that, and

875
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:50,200
Speaker 3: it was covered by my insurance one hundred percent. Only

876
00:58:50,240 --> 00:58:53,800
Speaker 3: my regular appointment COPE would apply. This was before the

877
00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:57,600
Speaker 3: legislation for covering birth control was passed, so my doctor

878
00:58:57,600 --> 00:58:59,440
Speaker 3: and I talked about it, and because I had a

879
00:58:59,440 --> 00:59:02,480
Speaker 3: bad reaction to hormonal birth control, she recommended doing the

880
00:59:02,520 --> 00:59:05,440
Speaker 3: paraguard the copper id. We giggled when she said that

881
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:07,440
Speaker 3: she liked that one because she likes to imagine the

882
00:59:07,480 --> 00:59:09,800
Speaker 3: heads of the sperm popping off when met with the

883
00:59:09,840 --> 00:59:14,160
Speaker 3: inhospitable uterine environment the copper creates. Did I mention she

884
00:59:14,200 --> 00:59:17,000
Speaker 3: sets my heart alight because she does. We talked about

885
00:59:17,040 --> 00:59:18,880
Speaker 3: how it would work, that it would be good for

886
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:20,960
Speaker 3: ten years, and if I wanted to take it out,

887
00:59:21,000 --> 00:59:24,120
Speaker 3: she could do that anytime, just come in. When I've

888
00:59:24,160 --> 00:59:26,840
Speaker 3: told friends about the insertion process, I've described it like

889
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:29,600
Speaker 3: sticking a straw in your huha then shooting a dart

890
00:59:29,600 --> 00:59:32,240
Speaker 3: into your uterus. But it didn't really hurt. I did

891
00:59:32,280 --> 00:59:34,520
Speaker 3: have cramping and a tinge of regret that I only

892
00:59:34,560 --> 00:59:37,960
Speaker 3: took four hundred milligrams of ibuprofen. The weirdest thing was

893
00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:40,560
Speaker 3: I got dizzy, uh and the nurse brought me an

894
00:59:40,560 --> 00:59:42,280
Speaker 3: apple juice box that they kept there for the kids

895
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:45,160
Speaker 3: and let me lie down for ten minutes. I advocated

896
00:59:45,200 --> 00:59:47,400
Speaker 3: the IUD to my best girlfriend after she had two

897
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:51,040
Speaker 3: children fourteen months apart her she and her husband decided

898
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:54,120
Speaker 3: their family was complete, at least for now. She wanted

899
00:59:54,120 --> 00:59:56,000
Speaker 3: to know about my experience, and she talked to her

900
00:59:56,000 --> 00:59:59,880
Speaker 3: obgyn and decided the marina was for her. I will

901
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:02,720
Speaker 3: pretty much talk to anyone about my ID if they ask,

902
01:00:03,280 --> 01:00:05,800
Speaker 3: and have called out IUD deniers for just being lying

903
01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:09,800
Speaker 3: liars like those who say it's an abortifacient. Anyway, Englishman

904
01:00:09,840 --> 01:00:11,760
Speaker 3: and I got hitched in twenty fourteen, and I have

905
01:00:11,920 --> 01:00:15,920
Speaker 3: four more years of effective, safe and fabulous birth control

906
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:17,880
Speaker 3: that I can decide at any time to keep or

907
01:00:17,920 --> 01:00:20,560
Speaker 3: take out having children. It's not something we want to

908
01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:23,320
Speaker 3: do maybe ever, and that is cool with my paraguard

909
01:00:23,360 --> 01:00:25,480
Speaker 3: because she's just in their chill and popping the heads

910
01:00:25,480 --> 01:00:28,720
Speaker 3: off sperm. Thank you so much for listening to my

911
01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:30,760
Speaker 3: story time. I've listened to you both for a few

912
01:00:30,840 --> 01:00:33,520
Speaker 3: years and appreciate so much your candor and the important

913
01:00:33,520 --> 01:00:35,920
Speaker 3: topics you discuss. Please let me know if you have

914
01:00:35,960 --> 01:00:39,960
Speaker 3: any questions I can answer. And Alison signs her letter

915
01:00:40,280 --> 01:00:44,080
Speaker 3: unicorns and empowerment and what a fabulous way to end

916
01:00:44,200 --> 01:00:47,000
Speaker 3: a letter. Thank you so much, Alison.

917
01:00:47,320 --> 01:00:50,360
Speaker 1: And thanks to everyone who's written into us moms stuff

918
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:55,040
Speaker 1: at HowStuffWorks dot com is our email address. And speaking

919
01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:59,520
Speaker 1: of email, y'all, in light of the post election hot

920
01:00:59,640 --> 01:01:04,080
Speaker 1: mess happening, I've started a little tiny letter, a little

921
01:01:04,120 --> 01:01:07,240
Speaker 1: tiny letter how redundant is that if you'd like to

922
01:01:07,280 --> 01:01:09,920
Speaker 1: check it out and subscribe, It's called the Do Better

923
01:01:10,040 --> 01:01:15,400
Speaker 1: Digest and you can subscribe at tiny letter dot com.

924
01:01:15,440 --> 01:01:20,560
Speaker 1: Slash Kristen, which is c R I S T E

925
01:01:21,240 --> 01:01:24,680
Speaker 1: n everlinks all of our social media as well as

926
01:01:24,680 --> 01:01:28,360
Speaker 1: all of our blogs, videos, and stuff mom Never Told

927
01:01:28,360 --> 01:01:31,880
Speaker 1: You podcasts with our sources. So you can learn even

928
01:01:31,920 --> 01:01:35,160
Speaker 1: more about birth control and reproductive rights. Head on over

929
01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:43,040
Speaker 1: to stuff Mom Never Told You dot com. For more

930
01:01:43,080 --> 01:01:46,160
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit houstuffworks dot

931
01:01:46,200 --> 01:01:54,040
Speaker 1: com