Improving Access to the IUD: Experiments in Koyang

ABSTRACT

The experimental study has been conducted in six townships of Koyang County, Kyonggi Province to identify more efficient methods of carrying the Intra-Uterine Device (IUD) into rural areas since May 1965, covering in all 76,810 inhabitants with 10,073 eligible women in 13,947 households. IUD acceptance rates are improved remarkably in two townships with activities of the mobile service and stationary clinic, impling that the IUD program could be intensified if IUD services are extended to the village either by mobile service or stationary services. The most of the eligible women wanting IUD in the future preferred to have IUD insertion by female physician on the before survey, but the results of the study shows no difference in IUD insertions by female and male physicians. Reasons to choose a clinic for IUD insertion are most likely to be accessibility or availability and reliability of the service with a little shyness problem. It indicates that the sex of physician inserter is not important in Korea. IUD termination rates are least for postpartum, and are trivially different between those inserted within ten days after onset of menstruation and those inserted later. IUD termination rates in terms of the qualification of inserter show that Ob-Gyn specialist is with the lowest termination rates, but it is interesting that nurse working alone with the postpartum cases did best of all and suggested that nurses can potentially insert IUD's as efficiently as do physicians if the proper training is given to them.