Sarah Vaughan wrote:
agent99 wrote:
[...]
Well, I just called their office, and spoke with her assistant. She
says that because the IUD is most likely to wander out of place in the
first six months of placement, they recommend that you use a condom
during that time.
[...]

Never heard this advice before in my life, and I have a diploma in
family planning. snip

Sounds like waaaaay overkill.

Ask her what, specifically, the figures are. The risk of an IUCD
wandering out of place at _any_ time is very low, so, although I don't
have actual figures for the first six months compared with any other
time, I wouldn't have thought the figures could be that high.

snip
I wouldn't bother with condoms, at that risk
level, unless I really felt pregnancy would be an out-and-out disaster
(in which case, I would be using them anyway regardless of how long the
IUCD had been in, because there is no such thing as a foolproof method
of contraception). HTH.


All the best,

Sarah

Thanks! Yes, I think it's being far too cautious. She also has me on
antibiotics for three days now, which apparently she does with all
patients to reduce the risk of infection. She seems extremely,
extremely cautious - I'd never heard of an ob/gyn doing monthly
ultrasounds for the first six months to make sure the thing was still
in position!! My old ob/gyn just told me to check the strings once a
month.

Of course, my first IUD didn't come out on its own - I was having a
heavy feeling in my abdomen, a lot of backache and inner thigh ache,
strange bloody discharge, and fever and chills. When I checked for the
strings, they were gone. So, I found a new ob/gyn here, who came highly
recommended by a friend. She checked with the ultrasound, said the IUD
was "way out of place" (I now think I should have asked specifically
where), and removed it. She told me I should never check the strings
myself, because I could inadvertently push them further up (not easy
for me - I'm a self cervix checker, from fertility tracking to dilation
to . . . ). And she gave me antibiotics then, to counter the
infection.

Maybe she's thinking I'm more at risk for another infection? But then,
condoms or not wouldn't make a difference . . . and I'd think I would
be *less* likely to get pregnant with a uterine infection, not more so.

Grrr. I got the IUD so I could *stop* worrying about birth control.
Hah.

thanks again,
99