Elizabeth Gasiorowski

Over the years many women found it too hard to take a pill everyday to stay protected from getting pregnant. Luckily in 1909 their prayers were answered with the invention of an intrauterine ring. The intrauterine ring that was invented was made to sit in the uterus and give off hormones that would stop women from getting pregnant. A doctor in Poland, Richard Richter, invented the intrauterine ring in hopes to elevate the struggle women were having. Unfortunately unlike other medical discoveries the next development in the IUD did not happen until almost 20 years later. In the 1920-1930 the IUD was made more efficient by Dr. Ernst Grafenberg in Germany. When he made changes to the IUD he added metal to the IUD trying to make it more effective to have in. After four years of prototypes in 1934 a doctor in Japan, Dr. Orta, reported that he had a patient who had great success with the new metal IUD. Following Dr. Orta, in 1949 Herbert Hall developed an IUD that was made of stainless steel and was suppose to be the safest thing on the market. This was the case, until the whole IUD game was changed by a young doctor named Dr. Hugh Davis.

Fast forward almost 35 years later the IUD would be forever changed by Dr. Hugh Davis. In 1968 Dr. Hugh Davis introduced the “Dalkon Shield IUD”. His IUD was shaped in an oval kind of look with little pricks coming off the ends. The Dalkon Shield IUD quickly became a huge success in the United States, as well as globally. By 1970 over 600,000 women were using Dalkon Shields. This was amazing until women started popping up saying that they had severe pelvic infections and perforations. By the year 1974 six women had died from using the shield and sales were quickly suspended. Being that this was a huge time in newspaper clippings, the propaganda photos relating to the Dalkon Shield IUD were starting to heat up and get pretty brutal. A lot of photos showed the Dalkon Shield IUD with a skull in the middle of the circle looking lilypad. The signs of death were everywhere related to the product. Due to all the medical problems, IUD’s were given a bad name all because of the Dalkon Shield. By 1989 the owners of the Dalkon Shield IUD had to put $2.5 billion into a trust fund to pay for the victims of the lethal drug.

Dalkon Shield (top left) Mirena IUD (bottom right)

As you can see by all the names listed, Dr. Richard Richter, Dr. Ernst Grafenberg, Dr. Orta, Herbert Hall, and Dr. Hugh Davis, from 1909 to modern times men have controlled a lot of aspects having to do with IUD’s.

This paved the way for two new IUD’s to come onto the market. By 2009 only two forms of IUD’s were sold in the United States. The first one being ParaGard, an IUD created by Duramed Pharmaceutical, and was made with no hormones and just was soft plastic and copper. According to ParaGard.com, “Paragard® is a form of birth control known as an intrauterine device (IUD). It’s sometimes called an intrauterine contraceptive (IUC). Paragard® is more than 99% effective in preventing pregnancy and has no hormones at all”. The Duramed Pharmaceutical company is based out of Montvale, New Jersey. Since this is a modern company, they have an equal opportunity bylaw, so they hire both men and women.

When looking further into the company and the materials used for the IUD, a great source for the information on ParaGard was MayoClinc.org. When looking for materials that were used for the IUD, MayoClinc.org states, “The (ParaGard) T-shaped plastic frame has copper wire coiled around the stem and two copper sleeves along the arms that continuously release copper to bath the lining of the uterus. ParaGard produces an inflammatory reaction in the uterus that is toxic to sperm, which helps prevent fertilization”. Fortunately for its user ParaGard guarantees that the user will not get pregnant for up to ten years after inserting the copper IUD.

The second type of IUD contraceptive on the market in the United States is Mirena. Mirena, and IUD created by Berlex Laboratory, is purely of plastic but, does contain Progestin. According to Mirena-us.com, “Mirena is an intrauterine device (IUD) that’s over 99% effective at preventing pregnancy. It’s made of soft, flexible plastic and placed into your uterus by your healthcare provider during a routine office visit. Mirena releases small amounts of hormones directly into the uterus”. With this type of IUD the user will not get pregnant for up to five years. Berlex Laboratory is based out of Wayne, New Jersey. As said previously, since this is a modern aged company, they hire both men and women to work for them.

Both forms of IUD’s are marketed mainly to women. Yes, men do take interest in the types of contraceptive there is in the United States for their sexual partners, but mainly, women are the ones seeing the marketing ads put out for the products. Both Mirena and ParaGard have ads in magazines such as; Cosmo, People, Life&Style, ect. These types of magazines are usually geared more towards women. Bauer-Media.com published the hard facts that Cosmo has a strong women readership ages 18 to 34. When putting ads for contraceptives, or IUD’s, in these magazines, the company is directing it straight to the readership that would be sexually active, as well as able to get pregnant. Putting the ads in these magazines really helps them in the end with education, visibility, and overall sales.

To use any form of birth control other than condoms, the user must make an appointment with their doctor. The user can go to their private doctor, a gynecologist office, student health center, and/or Planned Parenthood. All these places will get them the information they need and can schedule an appointment for them to get their IUD put in. The doctor’s office following the appointment will get in touch with the user’s insurance company. This will settle  how much it costs to get their IUD. Planned Parenthood’s website states that an IUD can cost anywhere from $0 (insurance covered whole price of IUD) to almost $1,000. This can be a large number to swallow, but the user can have protection for up to 10 years. Since the IUD is inserted by a healthcare provider, the user can be assured that they can go back to see the doctor if they are experiencing any problems.

One the IUD is inserted the user does not need to do anything else until they want to take it out. Since it is a one time insertion it makes it really easy for the user to maintain. The only thing the user will need to do, is make sure that the string is still their and your IUD has not been rejected. If the IUD unfortunately is rejected, then the user needs to immediately call their doctor and go see them to get the IUD put back into place, or talk about another form of contraceptive. The user needs to immediately call their doctor because if the IUD is floating anywhere other than the uterus, it can harm other parts of the body.

Fortunately for our planet, the usage of IUD’s is the greenest form of birth control. With anything else, such as; the birth control pill or the birth control patch, they have monthly to daily wrapping paper that needs to be dealt with. For the birth control pill, the user has to open the original packing once a month, then from there needs to break the plastic per day to get each pill out. In the end there can be three different packages they need to dispose of. First, the plastic wrapping on the outside of the pills and instructions. Secondly, the instructions are given with each packet, so those need to be thrown away as well. And lastly, once all the pills are used the container needs to be thrown away. Three things monthly need to get thrown away and none of it can be recycled. For the birth control patch, it is the same thing. There are multiple different packaging pieces that need to be dealt with as well. Firstly, they have to open the box that all three patches come in. Secondly, they have to open the individual sleeves that house the birth control patch. Thirdly, they have to take the patch off a plastic piece of paper. In the end the user with the birth control patch has to throw away the original box, the instructions, three sleeves, and three plastic sheets. This results in having eight things to throw away, and just like the birth control pill, none can be recycled.

Now compare that to the IUD. The IUD is inserted into the user’s uterus once every 10 years, depending on the brand they use. This means that it does not accumulate garbage. If the user is very environment friendly the IUD is an amazing option. Once the IUD has been used, it is sent back to the company that made it. From there the company can properly sterilize it and recycle accordingly. The book, “Safe Disposal and Management of Unused”, Unwanted Contraceptives, goes into great detail on the methods that can be used. In the book it says that IUD’s are sent back to the company that created them, more than they are put into landfills. This is super green and is a really amazing thing for our earth.