So both my wife and I wish we could transfer the knowledge this comic provides as I would have talked with her to get one just after we were married and if she knew she might have hit planned parenthood at 18. The author is I think something like 10 years younger than us. Maybe a bit less. Its the type of thing that makes you want to live in the future. I came from a family of seven kids and I know my parents did not really get condoms until late in life and I had this conversation with an elderly lady when I was in college who grew up in the south and was pregnant when she had believed the stork brought babies. Drives me crazy the folks in my country who want to be like the past. Of course what they want is for lesser folk to live like the past while they reap the fruits of a modern life.
The text below the comic is confusing. IUD insertion is painful, but often women are told to just take a Tylenol. It’s really frustrating that women have known this for decades, and yet only a week or so ago the guidelines for pain management have been updated. Women are often not taken seriously by doctors when they describe how much pain they are in.
It’s an incredibly effective long acting birth control method, and the copper version is a non-hormonal one. But some people experience moderate to severe pain until the IUD is removed, usually around seven years later.
Here’s an okay article about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/well/live/guidelines-iud-insertion-pain-management.html
Thank you for the context. I would never have figure out without being told that the doctor never offered this before. It was so obvious to me: You got anesthetic at the dentist, before surgery of any sort, before being stitch up, when you gave birth. I assumed she had to refuse it at some point for some mysterious reason I couldn’t figure out. I mean for what other reason would she go trough that much pain purposefully. Now I mad at the doctor with her.
It is painful for years? How could you know if it is better to take it off after all? Is it normally suppose to stop hurting after a few days?
I have never personally had one, but I’ve had friends who did. One of my friends did have pain for that long because her doctor told her it would go away soon, and asked if she had a therapist. Like pain is a mental health problem and not a physician’s problem.
There’s still a lot that is “unknown” in the medical world about women’s health. There is some data that people with very painful periods will have more pain and problems with the IUD, especially if they have never given birth. If you’ve lived most of your life with this much pain associated with periods, you eventually just continue living with it because you can’t get a doctor to take you seriously
That’s terrible.