Timing of copper intrauterine device insertion after medical abortion: a randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Copper (Supplement), published as a randomized controlled trial.

To compare intrauterine device (IUD) use at 6 months in women randomized to receive an intrauterine copper contraceptive 1 week compared with 1 month after medical abortion.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 6 women taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, women only.

The researchers recruited women undergoing medical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol and choosing the copper IUD for contraception.

The researchers randomly assigned participants to "immediate" insertion 1 week after mifepristone or "delayed" insertion 4-6 weeks later.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Because people in this Copper (Supplement) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

The researchers followed rates of IUD insertion, 6-month utilization, expulsion, removal, and pregnancy.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Abortion, Induced, Intrauterine Device Expulsion, Intrauterine Devices, Copper, Logistic Models, Pain Measurement, Patient Compliance and Postoperative Care.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Copper (Supplement) in 6 women.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 8 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2011 (Obstetrics and gynecology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Copper (Supplement) compound page, all human trials.