In some settings, women are advised to return to the clinic after IUD placement for a follow-up visit to check the strings and identify any expulsions. Our objective was to evaluate whether the number of follow-up visits to check the strings at the external cervical os after IUD placement predicts or prevents future deportations.
This was a retrospective study conducted at the University of Campinas Medical School, Brazil. We reviewed the medical records of all women who used an IUD to identify women who had experienced IUD expulsion. We fitted a generalized linear model of the time between IUC placement and eviction, adjusting for several variables at displacement.
Most expulsions occurred within the first six months after IUD placement, and 691/1612 were within the first three months after order. The adjusted model showed that the number of visits, the woman’s age, and complaints of pain and bleeding during use were not significantly associated with and had no influence on expulsion.
The study concluded that after IUD insertion, more than one follow-up visit within the first four to six months after placement is not necessary, as additional visits to check for IUD strings do not appear to reduce or predict future expulsion.
Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13625187.2019.1586872
