IUD-related hospitalizations. United States and Puerto Rico, 1973.

In a mail survey of physicians likely to be involved with intrauterine contraception in the United States and Puerto Rico, 49.2% of the physicians responded, describing 3,502 unduplicated reports of hospitalizations related to the use of intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs) during the first six months of 1973. We estimate from this response that approximately 7,900 IUD-related hospitalizations occurred during that period. Interviews with a probability sample of nonrespondents demonstrated that their IUD complication experience was not substantially different from that reported through the mail survey. Estimates of the number of IUDs worn in 1973 permit rate calculations of three to ten IUD-related hospitalizations per 1,000 woman-years of IUD use. The rate of hospitalizations attributable to the IUD is probably higher that that attributable to combination oral contraceptives.

IUD insertion practices in the United States and Puerto Rico, 1973.

PIP: Retrospective reports on IUD insertions during the first 6 months of 1973 were provided by 16,893 physicians residing in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. This was 48.9% of the physicians listed in the master files of the American Medical Association and the American Osteopathic Association as having an interest in obstetrics and gynecology, public health, general preventive medicine, or family practice. Information elicited by interviews with 1% of the nonrespondents mirrored that of the respondents. It is estimated that in the 6-month period there were 810,000 IUD insertions. Regional rates varied from a high of 27.3/1000 in parts of the West to 11.8-12.4/1000 in the Midwest. The rate for the nation was 18/1000. The percentage of nonprivate patients receiving IUDs varied substantially by region, too. 85% of all insertions were do ne by physicians; 6% by paramedical personnel. 90% of the physician-inserted IUDs were by doctors whose primary specialty was obstetrics-gynecology and more than 75% were by doctors engaged in direct patient care. Rates of insertion by individual physicians varied greatly. 1% of the obstetricians-gynecologists averaged more than 8 insertions a week.^ieng