Researchers publish paper on social media descriptions of experiences with pain during IUD placement

Although the Intrauterine Device (IUD) is highly effective and safe as a contraceptive method, women may shy away from the procedure due to the anticipated pain and potential trauma that could come with the procedure. 

Lauren D. Oshman, MD, MPH, professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan, is the senior author of a paper that analyzed comments on social media about women’s experiences with IUD placement. 

The paper, ‘Social Media Descriptions of Pain and Pain Management During Intrauterine Device Insertion: “Women's Pain is Not Taken Seriously,”’ was recently published in the journal Women’s Health Issues.

Oshman’s fellow authors include Gabrielle Schweitzer, MD, a resident physician in  the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at U-M; Azza Elrashid, an undergraduate student from the University of Pennsylvania; Lakshmi Sundaresan MD, a faculty member of U-M's Department of Family Medicine and the Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine at Western Michigan University; Kathleen Mehari, MD, a faculty member in the  Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at U-M; and Lauren Owens, MD, a faculty member in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The study's aim was to explore the experiences of social media users with pain, trauma, and pain management during IUD insertion. Social media is a trusted source of health information for people of reproductive age and social media users are more likely to voice their discomfort on various social media platforms, according to the authors.

“We wanted to simulate the experience of an average person searching to learn more about IUD insertion on a social media site,” said co-author Elrashid. “We hoped to learn not only about how they experienced pain, but whether they found their health care professional to be helpful and to offer pain management strategies.”

The team analyzed a total of 214 posts and comments on TikTok, Instagram, and X (previously referred to as Twitter, during the time of the study). They identified three major themes describing user experiences: 

• Severe pain experiences were more common compared to tolerable or mild experiences 

•  Some participants shared traumatic and negative emotional responses  

• Negative or dismissive health care professional responses to painful IUD insertion were more frequent than positive and supportive responses 

The authors acknowledge that not all people’s experiences were negative but that views presented on social media are what patients see when they engage in self-education before a visit for IUD insertion. The authors assert that interactions between social media posters and commentators signal an opportunity for health care providers to create interventions that could alleviate anxiety among patients that receive IUD insertion.

“The findings of this study underscore an urgent need for better training for doctors, nurse midwives, and other health care professionals who place IUDs,” Oshman said. “At the University of Michigan, we’re working to make sure that the clinicians at all our clinical sites can offer different pain management options to their patients.”

Article cited: Schweitzer, G., Elrashid, A., Sundaresan, L., Mehari, K., Owens, L., & Oshman, L. D. (2025). Social media descriptions of pain and pain management during intrauterine device insertion: “women’s pain is not taken seriously.” Women’s Health Issues. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.whi.2025.08.002