What No One Says About IUDs

Reading a Mother Jones article last night ("Why Haven't We Figured Out How to Make IUDs Less Excruciating?") that brought back a difficult memory. I was at my OB-GYN - years ago now - and a woman arrived to get an IUD.  She must have been the last patient of the day at close to five o'clock; it was January and already dark.

The woman looked worried as she came in and in a few minutes, began to melt down -- crying and shaking. She was talking with the nurse about the whole IUD insertion process and was upset to the point where I thought she was going to go home. Part of me wishes she had.

I myself would never have gotten one - I can't even deal with thinking about the kind of pain IUD's are supposed to inspire. After a couple years on the Pill (that caused way too much irregular bleeding), my birth control always consisted of diaphragms or condoms and spermicides. I was good about using them and never had a pregnancy (until I wanted one).

The Mother Jones article quotes a woman who compares a broken bone favorably as a "two" on a scale of one-to-ten, with ten being the highest pain, when compared with getting an IUD inserted. As I recall, the woman getting an IUD at my doctor's office elected to go through with it. I left the office while she was still in the waiting room, and I remember she was still crying.

I hope they talked her out of it, even though it wouldn't have been their job. What bothers me is that the device is supposed to be an excellent form of birth control. If it hurts as much as its reputation, though, would it be worth it?

Not to me. 

I guess what bothers me most is that modern medicine being what it is, I believe they could prevent the amount of pain women are experiencing. 

Money quote from the article:

"Despite the fact that everyone in the field agrees that IUD insertion pain is a giant problem without a good solution, very little work is being done to develop less painful, long-acting, reversible contraceptive options for women. Study after study has found that government agencies like the National Institutes of Health underfund medical research about women (italics mine).Winters, the midwife, finds this unacceptable. 'I absolutely believe that if men were the ones getting IUDs, the procedure would look a lot different by now,' she says."

I know, right? And my question is, why?

Why is this a fact of life?