Litigation avoided when screening, follow-up used
Contraceptive Technology Update 16(5): 61-64
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0274-726X PMID: 12319643 Document Number: 292137
GynoPharma Inc. recommends that its copper T380A IUD be used only among women who have had at least one child. Several studies conducted in Europe and New Zealand, however, have demonstrated that nulliparous women tolerate the device as well as parous women. At three years, there was no difference in the termination rates, including expulsion, between two groups of women studied in Belgium. The studies indicate that a woman's childbearing status does not influence whether she will successfully use an IUD; rather nulliparous women tend to be younger, and younger women tend to have multiple partners. Women with multiple partners tend to contract sexually transmitted diseases (STD) more often than monogamous women, STDs can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and PID can lead to infertility. Careful subject screening, recommendation of IUD use only to appropriate acceptors, and post-insertion follow-up are therefore necessary to both provide the highest level of reproductive health to the IUD user and avoid client-provider litigation should problems arise from IUD use. IUD use should be accepted by the nulliparous woman only when she is in a mutually monogamous sexual relationship devoid of STDs. IUD-related legal cases are rare, with all identified adverse judgements in physician malpractice claims related to post-insertion treatment.