Last week, while waiting for a friend in the pub, I was doom scrolling on Instagram when a New York Times graphic flashed up on my screen. “More research links IUDs to breast cancer risk”, the headline read, above a shadowy-looking picture of the T-shaped device that I, along with 159 million women, have lodged in our uteruses. I quickly skim-read the article, phrases like “40 per cent higher risk” and “long-established link” ringing like alarm bells as I sipped my wine. I knew that, in theory, I should be concerned. But I simply couldn’t muster the energy.
The details of the report are complex but nevertheless worrying – a study published earlier this month found that women using contraceptive IUDs using the hormone levonorgestrel are at increased risk of breast cancer. The research looked at 78,595 women in Denmark between the ages of 15 to 49 years who used the IUDs, known by the brand names Mirena, Liletta, Kyleena and Skyla, compared to women with similar profiles without IUDs. Those who used levonorgestrel IUDs had a 40 percent higher chance of developing breast cancer. (Despite this, breast cancer remains rare among women under 50, and extremely rare for women under 30).
