The new study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, subtitled “Rates of insertion for intrauterine devices and implants increased by 21.6 percent in the 30 days after the election”, was authored by researchers Lydia E. Pace, Stacie B. Dusetzina, Mara E. Murray Horwitz, and Nancy L. Keating. There is a great write-up about it from Science Daily just released:

Not long after Donald Trump was elected president, descriptive reports began rolling in: Demand for long-acting, reversible contraception (LARCs) such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants seemed to be on the rise. But was this trend based on a real shift in women’s use of LARCs or just due to normal fluctuations in interest in IUDs and implants or due to other factors? A new, robust study conducted by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital quantifies the increase, finding that rates went up by 21.6 percent in the 30 days after the election compared to rates at the same time of year in 2015.

One of the researchers is the impressive Lydia E. W. Pace who works at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Women’s Health and General Internal Medicine and the Women’s Health Policy and Advocacy Program for the Connors Center for Women’s Health. She was quoted as saying about the findings:

“LARC methods are by far the most effective form of reversible birth control available. We have seen that when LARC is made more available to women, the rates of unintended pregnancies go down. Our study tells us something important about women’s health preferences in a changing political climate. Women responded to this political event by seeking out this method of contraception, perhaps because the threat of losing access expedited a decision or encouraged them to seek out a method they hadn’t previously considered.”

Some more information from the report abstract:

Soon after the US presidential election on November 8, 2016, media and industry reports described an increase in utilization of long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods (intrauterine devices and implants). Proposed reasons included women’s concerns about contraceptive access should the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) be repealed during the Trump Administration.

These reports, however, were descriptive and did not control for seasonal or secular trends. Using data from a large sample of commercially insured women, we sought to assess whether there was an increase in LARC utilization among commercially insured women during the 30 days after the election, compared with the 30 days before the election and the same period in 2015.

Read the full Science Daily coverage here or view the original report here. The research was published at JAMA Internal Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal of the American Medical Association.