Just heard (ok it was tiktok) two stories about birth control implants getting lost in the body. One was a Mirena Coil and one an arm implant. Both lost in the body and they couldn’t be found at the doctor’s. The nurses in the story were not too concerned and just said they’re now somewhere in the abdominal cavity. How can an object randomly travel in the body and why is it not a medical concern?
In: Biology
OBGYN nurse here. It is a valid medical concern and required surgery to get fixed. An intrauterine device can potentially puncture a wall of the uterus and be expelled into the abdominal cavity. It’s a rare complication but happens once in a 10000? IUD cases. (Rarely. Not exactly sure of frequency) Sometimes it happens during insertion and sometimes it happens later. The reason is usually weak uterine wall, improper insertion technique or vigorous uterine contractions where the device would get dislodged out of place and stick itself into the muscle wall of the uterus, they’ll it could puncture the wall with its arm or the pointy end. The problem requires surgical removal via laparoscopic incision, very rarely it would require a larger cut. More often though, the IUD is expelled through the vagina into the toilet during a period for example and the patient may not notice that it happened. It’s important to check for presence of IUD strings in the vagina regularly. An arm implant could potentially get dislodged also and get deep into arm muscle or close to the bone. It can happen due to improper insertion technique or other reasons. The device is normally inserted under the skin and you should check it’s location regularly by palpating. The doctor teaches the patient how to do that.
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