CONTENTS
December 1995 |
Among developed countries IUDs may be most widely used in Europe, where in some countries more than one-quarter of married women of reproductive age relied on IUDs according to surveys in the 1980s (297, 640). Surveys in the 1990s report 15% of married women of reproductive age using IUDs in the Czech Republic and 11% in Slovakia but lower elsewhere—5% in Belgium, 6% in Germany, and 4% in Romania (640). In Russia 33% of married women age 20-49 surveyed in 1994 used IUDs. IUD users accounted for half of all contraceptive users (585). A recent survey in Kazakstan reported that 40% of married women use IUDs, accounting for two-thirds of all contraceptive use (611). In Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, no more than about 5% of married women of reproductive age use IUDs (43, 187, 192, 220, 242, 324, 325). IUD use has leveled off or declined in many developed countries (181, 242, 263, 295, 324, 325, 390), in part because voluntary sterilization has become widely available and popular among older women (52, 182, 242, 324, 390). |