IUD continuation rate and the reasons for discontinuation in women referring to Bandar Abbas health centers, Iran

Introduction: TCU-380 A IUD is one of the safest and widely used methods reversible of contraception. The purposes of this study were to determine continuation rate and its determinants and also the reasons for discontinuation of the TCU-380A IUD in women who referred to health centers of Bandar Abbas. Methods: The population studied in this retrospective survey was women who had started using TCU-380A IUD from early 2003 to late 2005 by referring to Bandar Abbas health centers. A total of 400 subjects were selected randomly by multistage sampling method. Data were collected from documents in health centers and interview with subjects. Life tables, Kaplan-Meier, and cox regression model used for data analysis by SPSS 13 statistical software. Results: The continuation rate of using TCU-380A IUD between 6 month, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 and 4 years were 92%, 87%, 81%, 75%, 69%, 62, 56% and 50%, respectively. Counseling and desire for having child in the future were significantly associated with continuation of TCU-380A IUD (P<0.03). The main reasons for discontinuations were bleeding (23.6%), side effects (21.1%), planning pregnancy (16.3%), pain (11.4%), health concerns (8.9%), spontaneous (6.5%) and dissatisfaction with the method (5.7%). Conclusion: Holding educational workshops for health workers about counseling on family planning and empowering them, counseling before TCU-380A IUD insertion, informing women about side effects and regular check-up visits is recommended to increase the IUD continuation rate.