I asked several OB/GYNs today if they had seen an increase in requests for IUDs.
The answer, “Oh my God, yes.”
This confirms what I have also personally seen in the three short days since the election.
Some women on the IUD fence just decided to go for it worried it night not be an option by the end of January and others who currently have IUDs in place but are a year or so from replacement have asked if they can get it replaced soon. As in now.
Why this Trump terror?
Well, when a candidate makes campaign promises it is reasonable for people to think those things might happen.
Mike Pence said in October that a Trump Presidency would repeal the contraception mandate for the Affordable Care Act, which is what keeps expensive contraception, like IUDs and implants, affordable for most women. In fact, almost 90% of insured women have $0 cost for an IUD. That is twice as many paying $0 as pre-ACA.
Trump can’t just sign away the ACA, but he can change the definition of preventive care and take contraception off the table. It is not unreasoanble to estimate that 50% of insured women will lose their $0 co payment for IUDs.
IUD and the implant are expensive. While these are the most effective forms of birth control and reduce the abortion rate having $600 or often more up front to pay is a hardship for many women. Amortized over seven or more years these products are a bargain, but the upfront cost is a hurdle for many.
OK, well there’s always Planned Parenthood! They have a sliding scale.
Except Pence wants Planned Parenthood on the “ash heap of history,” Trump is also in bed with the Susan B. Anthony List who want Planned Parenthood gone, and U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives (i.e. the Planned Parenthood witch hunt over fetal tissue donation) has apparently been tapped to help with the Trump transition team. Let’s just say the “in kids” hate Planned Parenthood.
While Obama has proposed a rule to protect Planned Parenthood from losing federal Title X funds, its review a by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department is not complete. That would have to happen before Trump is inaugurated to be protective. Even if it does pass expect more assaults on Planned Parenthood. Trump and his anti-science cronies have at least two years to dream up creative ways to take away Planned Parenthood’s federal money.
A Mirena IUD provides seven years of coverage and a copper IUD 12 years. The Skyla is only good for three years so that isn’t going to outlast Trump. IUDs are highly effective and excellent choices with great user satisfaction and they also reduce the abortion rate, a fact clearly lost on Trump his band of anti-science crusaders.
Yes, it is highly likely in his first weeks of Presidency Trump will try to do away with the contraception mandate. Some insurances will keep contraception covered and others will not.Many women will be left with hefty bills for IUDs. If the Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t get its act together it will be relatively easy for Trump to defund Planned Parenthood.
And no, that is not where the assault on reproductive rights will stop.
These women who are calling their OB/GYNs have every right to be worried.
Dr. Jen Gunter 
Love your blog, but I am curious: when I got my Mirena, my OB told me 5 years was the max, safely, but that Europe is testing it for 6. I also read some reports that leaving in an IUD for longer than it should can have side-effects like hair-loss. Can you comment?
I work in an OB/GYN and boy did we see a huge increase in IUD insert appointments and we still are! Women even are getting their IUDs replaced a year or more early just to ensure that their’s outlasts our president.
I’d like free Viagra but health insurance doesn’t cover that either.
Sorry, wrong analogy. Viagra is not preventative health care.
I asked my PCP to please give my wife and I (lesbians married for 11 years) scripts for birth control pills. We will be donating them to women in need who will not be able to get them.
I am pregnant and am definitely worried about what my coverage will be for a new IUD after I have the baby in April. I will be asking my OB about getting a breast pump prescription at my next appointment rather than waiting until delivery. I’m terrified of the next 4 years – and I’m an upper middle class white woman with the ability to pay out of pocket if necessary.
Mirena IUDs to prevent cancers
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