CONTENTS
December 1995 |
The highest prevalence of IUD use in developing countries is in Vietnam and China, where 30% or more of married women of reproductive age use IUDs. In Vietnam the IUD accounts for almost two-thirds of all contraceptive use (584). In China the IUD and voluntary female sterilization are used by approximately equal numbers of women (66, 67). IUDs are widely used in several other Asian countries, particularly in Indonesia and in Taiwan, where as early as the 1970s the government contracted with private physicians for IUD insertion and voluntary sterilization (606). In the Near East and North Africa, the IUD is a leading method in several countries. In Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia, sharp rises in the use of the IUD accounted for most of the growth in overall contraceptive prevalence during the 1980s (477, 489, 506, 518). In two of these countries, Egypt and Jordan, the rise in IUD use came at the expense of the Pill. More than one-third of all contraceptors in Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia now rely on IUDs (see Table 3). In Turkey IUD use has also grown in recent years (388). In 1988 IUD use increased by about one-third after a 3-month mass-media campaign that encouraged people to visit clinics for family planning services (604). In most Latin American and Caribbean countries, voluntary female sterilization and oral contraceptives are more commonly used than IUDs. Among recently surveyed countries, the IUD is the most widely used modern contraceptive method only in Peru, where 22% of all contraceptors relied on it in 199193 (622), and Bolivia, where 18% of all contraceptors used IUDs in 1994 (653). More than 10% of married women of reproductive age use IUDs in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru (see Table 3). In sub-Saharan Africa levels of IUD use are generally the lowest in the world, as are overall contraceptive use rates. Among countries with surveys, Botswana has the highest level of IUD use, at 6% of married women of reproductive age (see Table 3). |