The most painful form of birth control, used by millions of American women, could soon be virtually painless, thanks to a new cervical “suction” cup.
Women undergoing procedures to insert an IUD have long been forced to endure the agony of stretching their cervix with a metal device that looks like a pair of scissors.
He stretches the cervix using sharp hooks before inserting the T-shaped device, which stops fertilization by preventing sperm from meeting the egg.
However, the traditional ‘stretching device’ is known to be extremely painful as the metal edges often puncture the tissue and cause bleeding.
But now, experts at Swiss technology company Aspivix have invented an alternative method that uses suction to manipulate the cervix, reducing pain by three quarters.
The tenaculum, on the left, can poke holes in the cervix when it grabs it, while the new Carevix device uses suction to stretch the cervix, minimizing bleeding.
In a Swiss trial, the device was shown to reduce women’s pain scores during insertion by 73 percent.
It works by attaching to the cervix using a suction cup and separating it, with no sharp edges in sight.
The Carevix device is still being tested in the US and more studies will need to be done to ensure its effectiveness and safety; However, early trials show it can reduce pain by up to 73 percent.
It has already proven successful for several European patients and their doctors, who have reported dramatic reductions in pain and bleeding.
It is widely known that the insertion of an IUD can be excruciatingly painful.
Women who have never given birth are also likely to have a closed cervix, meaning the doctor performing the insertion has to push with some force or use a dilator to place the IUD beyond the cervix and into the uterus.
Currently, doctors use the scissor-shaped device, known medically as a tenaculum.
The tenaculum, which comes from forceps used to extract bullets from the flesh of Civil War soldiers, has been described as a butcher’s hook which can perforate the cervix.
The pain of the procedure, which is rarely improved by over-the-counter acetaminophen or ibuprofen, has been the subject of millions of TikTok videos, in which women and doctors openly talk about fainting or crying on the examination table.
The Internet is awash with videos of women describing their doctors downplaying their pain.
The IUD is 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy
A 2023 survey of American doctors showed that only four percent of trained doctors offered their patients an injected anesthetic, which has been shown to reduce pain during the procedure.
In a previous Swiss study of 100 women in Switzerland, doctors found that Carevix reduced the number of bleeding episodes by almost 80 percent, compared to a regular IUD procedure.
The FDA cleared the device last year, allowing Carevix’s maker, Aspivix, to market it to doctors across the United States.
However, the parameters of its authorization do not mean that the FDA has comprehensively evaluated the safety and effectiveness of the device with the same rigor as it does with medical devices such as implantable pacemakers or artificial hearts.
An IUD is one of the most effective methods of birth control, with a success rate of over 99 percent, meaning that fewer than one in 100 people with an IUD will become pregnant each year.
This usually occurs because the tool has been inserted incorrectly.