While Tick Tock can be a source of entertaining and adorable clips and oddly some educational ones, recently researchers from Duke University found a troubling trend among some medical-targeted videos. Specifically, ones revolving around IUD pain. Now it’s no secret that this form of birth control can be one of the more painful ones to have inserted, but these particular videos are showing the worst of the worst. Which is sending waves of distrust through its viewers.
What Are Some of The IUD Pain Videos That Are Causing The Uproar?
The first one is from @prozacprincess, who filmed the process of the actual insertion. The pain on her face is clear. You can even hear the doctor telling her to just “breathe” through the process.
Comments reacting to this video included:
- My husband knows I have an IUD and he asked if it actually hurt that bad and I said yeah so now he agreed to getting a vasectomy.
- It hurts more than labour. It’s quicker, but the pain is worse.
- I almost passed out and threw up as I was walking out the building
The rest of the comments were similar, with a bulk of them being sympathy, astonishment or rage as to why there was no form of pain control administered, fear of having one put in or even taken out, cancellation of future appointments, and a few saying they had no problems during the procedure but were aware there could be pain and we’re very sorry for those who experienced that kind of agony.
The next video shows a specific tool that doctors use to hold the cervix or even maneuver it into the proper position.
- I don’t get it. You can be fully sedated for dental work (simple fillings) cause of “ordonthophobia”. Let’s get “gynaeophobia” and demand sedation
- My doctor literally told me to calm down when she was putting it in, she was so condescending the whole time
- I went back a week later and they said it “moved” but insurance won’t cover another for a full year. I could pay $1,000 if I “still want it” ?
The last video is of a woman explaining her own experiences having IUD insertion pain.
The comments after were very similar to the other two videos, except this time there was an actual gynecologist commenting on the poor practices these doctors were taking as well as the disrespectful attitude towards their patient’s pain.
Back to the Duke University research. The group used a web scraping application that downloaded the top 100 most views that had the tags #IUD on Tick Tock. The results were nearly 38% had a negative tone with only 19% having a positive tone. 28% mentioned that they didn’t trust doctors or Health Care Professionals. 24% contains some sort of mention of moderately or highly inaccurate scientific claims.
On the researcher’s side, they had this to say…
“Inevitably a lot of negative videos tend to garner more attention on these applications, and so I think there is a lot of negativity towards birth control on TikTok. That’s not to say that it is not a real lived experience because IUDs are quite painful. It is definitely an uphill battle when I feel like the algorithm does not work in favor of positive videos towards this.”
Jenny Wu, a resident obstetrician-gynecologist at Duke who helped conduct the research.
It seemed the focus of the researchers was to try and lean public opinion towards this birth control towards a more positive side, there was still at least mention of TikTok being a resource for insights that healthcare professionals should take seriously. They need to know what is out there online so they can determine whether to adjust the ways they communicate with their patients about IUD procedures and pain management options.
Learning Through The App Versus Learning Through A Doctor
What concerns doctors most is that people are learning about IUDs and IUD pain is that it’s through the app instead of a health professional. But when health professionals are not describing the procedure accurately, can we really blame women for turning to people who’ve had the procedure for advice?
There was also mentioned (sorry I can’t remember the source) that said there can sometimes be a huge disconnect between patient and doctor. All the patient is focusing on the pain the doctor is ignoring it and thinking of what is best for the patient – in this case having a reliable source of birth control.
This approach, however, does not make the patient’s pain acceptable. It is the responsibility of a doctor to prepare their patient and inform them about all aspects of whatever procedure they’re having so the other side can make an informed decision
Pain Tolerances And Medication
Other studies (like Interventions for pain with intrauterine device insertion – Lopez, LM) have tested various pain treatments for IUD insertion. Because most professionals will just tell the patient to take ibuprofen or some sort of painkiller beforehand. However, it seems that many of these studies have focused on topical creams and similar solutions – which have no effect that will make any difference to the pain.
That doesn’t mean that women are out of options when it comes to IUD pain. As mentioned before, there’s local anesthetic would you have during dental procedures even basic cosmetic procedures. Or if you know you have a particularly low pain tolerance why not the option to be fully sedated under anesthesia? Is it because the US Healthcare System doesn’t want to spend money on this?
That’s not to say there aren’t doctors who care. Some patients even insist on only having IUDs from doctors who have had one inserted themselves. Or, from doctors who have caring and empathetic advice under their basic professional and moral compass to do no harm.
So What’s The Takeaway On Tick Tock And IUD Pain?
Doctors say that this platform is spreading negativity and misinformation. In the case of misinformation, that’s inevitable there will always be comments of people chiming in with one-up horror stories to fuel the fires. But there are still plenty of very real stories of pain from women all across the world who have experienced this kind of birth control. And therein lies the doctor’s fault.
And if I were to put in a final verdict I would say that the fault lies with the doctors. If they want public opinion towards this kind of birth control to be veered more to the positive side, then they should do better in educating a patient, going over all possible kinds of pain relief, talking about the real possibilities of severe pain (no “slight pinches”) or side effects they could experience, what to expect in the days afterward, and respecting the patient in general.
And why not go the extra mile?
Any doctor who has to insert this kind of birth control should go through a mandatory workshop/seminar about how to properly go through the entire process – from the moment the patient walks in with questions to a few days after the process and checking in on them. Not to mention teaching patient care and empathy for those who are having a hard time during the procedure. Because there have been far too many accounts (not only with birth control) of doctors having an impatient or condescending attitude toward the people they’re treating.
And if you think about it, it’s kind of sad that we would have to teach the one profession that is supposed to care about us the most .. How to actually care.
Is The Original IUD Pain Article Correct?
In essence, their findings were correct, at least with the percentages. I did not like the tone of trying to sway it more toward the positive just for the sake of having social media on their side. But at least there was mention of forward-thinking insight into better communication with patients – although that seems like a bit of an understatement to me.
So what would I do if I was one of these women who had seen these videos and wanted an IUD but was worried about IUD pain?
I would use these videos to collect as much information as possible – whether it was correct or incorrect – and then use this information when I would speak to the doctor. Then I would gauge their attitude toward how they would deal with pain management during the session. If they seem like somebody who would just tell you to breathe through it and imagine being on a beach, I would say thank you have a nice day, and walk out.
Because there are hundreds of other doctors in your area that you can ask and you will find one that will care for you properly. Remember: the first doctor you find is not the one you have to agree to.
Any IUD experiences or thoughts you want to share? Leave them in the comments!
