A new method involving local anaesthesia in the uterus could reduce pain during IUD insertion, a new study has found.\n<\/p>\n
The study, conducted by the Karolinska Institutet and published in the journal JAMA, found that the method increased the number of women who described pain during the procedure as \u2018tolerable\u2019. <\/p>\n
It involved using a small amount of local anaesthetic, introduced into the uterus via a thin plastic catheter a couple of minutes before the procedure.\n<\/p>\n
Researchers said the results may encourage more women to choose an IUD \u2013 a small, T-shaped birth control<\/a> device placed inside the uterus \u2013 as a method of long-acting contraception.<\/a> <\/p>\n Related Article: RCN Foundation offers \u00a31,200 grants for nurse wellbeing projects<\/a>\n<\/p>\n The randomised study, carried out at 11 gynaecological clinics and youth health centres in Sweden and funded by the Swedish Research Council, involved 370 women aged 18 to 31 who had not previously given birth.\n<\/p>\n Participants were randomly allocated to receive either the local anaesthetic, called mepivacaine, or a saline solution prior to IUD insertion.\n<\/p>\n Neither the participants nor the healthcare staff knew which treatment was being administered. <\/p>\n On a scale of 0 to 100, the average pain score was 43.8 among participants who received mepivacaine, compared with 58.6 among the participants who had saline solution.\n<\/p>\n The study also revealed that the proportion of participants who described the pain as \u2018tolerable\u2019 rose from 91.4% in the saline group to 98.3% among those receiving anaesthetic.\n<\/p>\n More than half of the women in the mepivacaine group also found the procedure \u2018easier than expected\u2019, compared with around a third in the control group. <\/p>\n