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

H. S. Kahn and C. W. Tyler Jr

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.