NEW YORK CITY, February 1, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The intrauterine device (IUD) is a contraceptive and abortifacient that, according to the Centers for Disease Control, is increasingly popular among American women. It is praised for being 99 percent effective as a form of birth control for as many as 12 years, though it has many harmful side effects, including death.
One of the side effects of the IUD is, according to 13 women who spoke with Cosmopolitan's Hannah Smothers, the pain of its initial insertion. Smothers, who called going 12 years without having to worry about getting pregnant “YAHTZEE,” interviewed 13 women whose descriptions include phrases like “it felt like someone was shocking my cervix with a taser.”
Twenty-nine-year-old Brenda told Smothers that “[the pain] was so bad that I almost passed out” and that “I had to spend an additional 30 minutes in my gynecologist's office drinking that horrible sugar water they give pregnant women to test for diabetes until they thought I had enough of my color back to leave.”
Tina, who is the same age as Brenda, described a similar level of physical torment. “The actual insertion was about five seconds of the most intense pain I've ever felt in my life,” she said. “Once I felt OK enough to stand (it took a minute) I had to go straight back to work, which was terrible – you feel really crampy afterward and it was a bumpy cab ride back to the office.”
Molly, 22, said she “would do it all over again” and that “I want to marry my IUD[.]” However, she also told Smothers that “it felt like someone was shocking my cervix with a taser.”
Another person who justified the pain was Anna. Twenty-one years old, she said getting an IUD “might hurt but, definitely not anywhere near as much as having a child so … worth it!”
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“That being said,” Anna continued, “I think it hurt worse than I thought it would. … After they were done, they left me in the room to rest for a moment. I felt very dizzy and was sweating. I ended up sitting on the floor to catch my breath and cool down. Thankfully I didn't pass out. The rest of the day, I had cramps but the dizziness went away.”
One person who said the fear was worse than the pain was 23-year-old Dana, who described the pain as “just a pinch.” Dana also told Smothers that “as scared as I was to get it, it's better than the endless fear that I would always somehow get pregnant even if I wasn't having sex. It just takes away the pregnancy panic.”
The oldest women in the group, 38-year-old Lilly, has used the IUD twice. “I screamed, I yelled, I cried. It was both painful and extremely uncomfortable and gross feeling.”
Lilly said, “[t]he pain after the first insertion was intense, bad enough that I went back then next day quite sure they'd punctured something.”
Many of the women told Smothers that the ability to avoid pregnancy was worth the pain, with several cheering either the avoidance of pregnancy generally or specifically the pain of delivering a child. None of the women, including Smothers, indicated that she intended to use abstinence to prevent pregnancy.
