After a rocky start, the IUD is now celebrating its 50th birthday

After a rocky start, the IUD is now celebrating its 50th birthday
A Likhaan NGO health worker shows an Intrauterine family planning device to housewives at a reproductive health

Written by Katherine Ellen Foley
January 27, 2018

Until relatively recently, scientists didn’t really understand contraception.

The earliest efforts on record to prevent unwanted pregnancy, from ancient Egypt, were to simply clog the uterus—rocks seemed to work well enough in animals like cows and camels (although the logistics of inserting those are a little fuzzy). For obvious reasons, that was not a suitable option for humans.

Continued: https://qz.com/1189274/after-a-rocky-start-the-iud-is-now-celebrating-its-50th-birthday/