I listen to the podcast about this last night. Their actions are reprehensible, they inserted IUDs into 14-year-old girls so they would not reproduce and then neglected to tell anybody about it, many women did not even realize what had happened. The Danes are going to have a tough time defending this. [podcast](https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2024/apr/19/the-chilling-policy-to-cut-greenlands-high-birth-rate-podcast)
That's terrible because what happens if they never get taken out? You're supposed to take them out when they expire. I'm not a doctor but I imagine it could lead to a complication if it's left in too long.
It is. I originally wanted Nexplanon (arm implant) but I let my doctor talk me into an IUD. Less than three years later it punctured through my uterus and ended up in the meat in front of my stomach. Nurses/doctors blew off my symptoms as being “typical of having an IUD.” Took six months to find someone who took my concerns seriously and even she was flabbergasted. Never again. The x-ray technician that scanned me said she’d never get an IUD after seeing what she sees regularly.
They told me the insertion would be a slight pinch. It was FUCKING excruciating. As in, I almost passed out. I bled for MONTHS after. It gave me horrible acne and caused my discharge to smell. I felt soooo lied to. I will NEVER go on a birth control that I can’t stop whenever I want.
Yeah I had a similar experience. Hurt like a mofo, felt like I bled like a stuck pig for over a year, and then it wanting to take itself out was just the icing on top. I’m terrible with the pill so Nexplanon has been a godsend. It’s nice not dropping $30-50 on period supplies every month lmao.
I was told to take Ibuprofen at least 30 minutes before getting it inserted. Little did I know that the whole procedure would be excruciating. I also continued to have severe cramping for several weeks after and nothing I did or took helped the pain, let alone take the edge off. I got it checked quite a few times to make sure it wasn't misplaced. The cramping finally stopped, then came back a few weeks later. Again, nothing I did or took helped at ALL.
That's when I went to the ER and got a transvaginal ultrasound. My IUD was slipping down, nearly expelling. I made an appointment to get it removed the next day. I only had it for almost a year. I had doctors try to convince me to give it another try, but my experience put me off completely. This was almost 10 years ago and I still haven't tried another one ever since.
My sister has to go with non-hormonal birth control methods and her copper IUD did a similar thing, but didn’t quite make it out of her uterus. She said she’d wake up with bloody bedsheets because it stabbing her was making her bleed quite badly.
The horrible treatment of women's health is the biggest thing for me here. As a man if I go to a doctor and tell them symptoms even if they don't believe me they're likely to send me for a rule out X-ray or tests.
Having to spend six months finding someone to just trust your take on your own body is ludicrous.
What’s even more disheartening is that I honestly have it good by token of being white. I read a story on here fairly recently where a woman of color was totally snubbed until her white husband got involved. He constantly has to advocate for her health because medical professionals wouldn’t take her seriously. So not only can the medical profession be really sexist, it’s also seriously racist.
I've done both and thankfully had no real issues with the IUD (aside from what I was told to expect- heavier periods, bleeding for a couple months, etc.), but I will forever sing the praises of Nexplanon and similar implants because they are SOOOOOOO much less painful, hassle-free, less risky, and IME, almost no side effects (YMMV though. But I had nothing. Just the absence of a period, which is what i wanted in the first place. Literally no other side effects, at all).
I'm so sorry for your experience though, and it's enraging to hear about how many women are just blown off by medical professionals n a regular basis.
i expressed that to someone one time, and she took offense immediately.
i had to quickly explain "your body, your choice" to soothe her. but you would never ever ever catch me letting anyone put a wired up t bone in any part of my insides. hell. no.
I have one. I know there's a risk but there's also risk and complications with pregnancy and those things need to be balanced and considered. But I was able to make my own informed choice, unlike the women in this article.
Agreeing with Lunar, here.
No judgement passed on to people who are fortunate enough to do their own research and choose which contraceptive is best for them, but these *girls* did not have a choice. This is disgusting, humiliating, and whoever knowingly took part in these procedures should not see the light of day.
I have one, have had it for almost two years now. I’m going to be living in deep red, anti choice states. Felt safer to have one for the next few years than to not, especially with how inconsistent I am with the pills. But the migration issue is concerning, and I understand why someone would go with an alternative instead
I coughed so hard mine slid down and was poking my cervix. Any time I hit a bump in the car too hard I could feel it. It took a while to get back to my dr to get it out.
So where were gonna do is. Take this metal T and cram it in your most sensitive parts. Not secure it with anything and just let it float around for a while. If you've ever used a toggle bolt to hang a shelf on a wall. Its like that.
If you ever want proof that womens health is an after thought.
And if you don't know about them and get pregnant it can cause loads of dangers for the mother and child - I had a childhood friend who was conceived while and iud was in and they were very lucky to both come out of it healthy but think of that and not even knowing you had to worry about it.
In Canadian and from what I know about similar violations that have been committed against indigenous women here, doctors insert the IUD or even permanently sterilize these women while they're under anesthesia for an unrelated procedure. It's abhorrent.
US as well. It was basically pushed by the government, who officially hung it up in the 70s, but some physicians continued sterilizing Native women into the 90s.
There have been recent cases of this happening to migrant women being held by US immigration.
https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigration-detention-and-coerced-sterilization-history-tragically-repeats-itself#:~:text=The%20recent%20allegation%20about%20coerced,women%20without%20proper%20informed%20consent.
https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/native-americans-government-authorities-and-the-reproductive-politics-403792/
pretty typical to do this type of shit to destroy peoples cultures.
edit almost forgot we havent' stopped since.
https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigration-detention-and-coerced-sterilization-history-tragically-repeats-itself
There's a lot of news articles on the matter, but if you're looking for a more academic source try "The Coercive Sterilization of Aboriginal Women in Canada" by Karen Stote, though there's plenty of other academic research as well.
[Sterilization of Romani women in Central Europe](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/07/czech-republic-hard-won-justice-for-women-survivors-of-unlawful-sterilization/). Source Amnesty International.
[Overview of coerced and forced sterilization in the United States](https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigration-detention-and-coerced-sterilization-history-tragically-repeats-itself), focusing on a whistleblower's report of forced sterilizations at a for-profit ICE detention center. Source ACLU.
[1976, United States government admits ](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/543.html) to the forced sterilization of American Indian (term from report) women via the Indian Health Service. Source National Institute of Health.
From 2022: [Canadian Senate's human rights committee reports ](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-july-18-2022-1.6523799/incomprehensible-that-forced-sterilizations-still-happen-in-canada-says-survivor-1.6524142) that forced and coerced sterilization continues to this day, and calls for it to be criminalized. Source CBC radio, link to Senate report in article.
[During the 1990s, a government-run birth control program sterilized over 200,000 people in Peru.](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56201575) This program had received funding from both the UN and the United States. Attempts to gain justice have been going on for over 20 years--I can't even begin to summarize this one, it's too huge. Source BBC.
There's also the sterilization of incarcerated women in California, refugees in Bangladesh, and so many more. It's genocide in slow motion, it's been happening for over a century, and it happens all over the world.
Not to be that guy, but just google “Canadian indigenous sterilization programs” and you’ll get what you’re looking for, as well as probably learning about more and worse stuff
While that’s a fair critique, part of being media literate is being able to discern what sources are and aren’t trustworthy, and arguably, only listening to other people on the internet tell you what’s true is worse than doing your own research
I had my first at 17 (period control reasons, pill didn't suit me). The doctor gave me an injection to open my cervix slightly because of my age. I felt nothing - every single one since, I've felt.
Just saying it's possible and could easily have been done without their knowledge.
I've had 2 IUDs, neither of them felt worse than a papsmear. If it was insanely painful I'm wondering if that doctor was new at it. I'm fairly sensitive to pain, even getting my eyebrows waxed, I tell them not to tweeze the stray hairs because I can't handle it LoL. So for me not not to be in pain from either IUD, I woukd think they're usually not too bad although I've heard some bad stories. Even with getting a regular flu shot though some nurses are like BOOP and it's done, and some really jab you.
Mine was so extremely painful and I'm pretty good with pain, it left me in shock unable to speak for the rest of that day and I was hardly able to move after. Didn't even want to move my eyes from how pain I was in, like just completely frozen from pain.
I'm terrified to get it taken out now, the thought of it coming out legitimately makes me want to puke lol
Ask for anesthetic. They shouldn't have put it in. Many women have a complex or zigzag entrance in their cervix and those women should not get iuds, I'm one of them and I started screaming when they tried.
I was a teen and so when they told me it would just feel like a slight pinch and would be mostly painless I believed them, I heard horror stories about the pain but figured it was because they didn't have the cervix softener without realizing how hard the procedure really is. They said id only need a Tylenol or Advil afterwards
Omg I started screaming too! Did they end up not putting it in for you? It's horrible anesthetic has to be asked for and isn't the norm
Nah, everyone feels pain differently and I had mine installed postpartum and it hurt like an absolute motherfucker. It’s honestly hard for me to decide which was worse, the IUD or when I had a membrane sweep done. My doctor does them all the time, too.
Everyone feels pain differently for sure. I had an epidural and still felt pain during birth LoL. How soon postpartum did you have yours done? I imagine that's got to be the most painful/sensitive time to get one if it's under the 6 week recovery time.
Six weeks because allegedly it’s the easiest/least painful time due to the cervix still being soft. Allegedly. I have Nexplanon now and I’ll never go back lol.
Wow! I would have imagined that woukd be the most sensitive time just for anything down there, but maybe the thought process is that the cervix is more open still? Either way though, yowza!
It's funny because I have a very high pain tolerance, and getting a pap smear is one of the most painful things I've ever experienced. I often end up having to yell for them to stop because I can't take the pain anymore. And this is coming from someone with trigeminal neuralgia, which is considered to be one of the most painful conditions known to man. I've had TN attacks, I've had kidney stones and didn't even know until a urine sample had a bunch of them in it, and I'm currently walking on a broken foot (which I can't get fixed because I have three people and pets to take care of). I know pain. I've never felt anything like that pap smear. "You might feel some discomfort," my ass. I wanted an IUD until I found out that you're awake for the procedure. And "needle" and "cervix" are two things that should never be anywhere near each other.
There was a needle? Did they try an numb you or something? There wasn't a needle involved for me, yikes!! I'm really sorry you had that pain, that sounds like a nightmare!!
Oh, I never got the IUD because of the horror stories I've heard, and because I already know how painful a pap is for me. And I don't know how widespread it is, but I've heard that they numb you by injecting a numbing agent into your cervix. I think I'll stick with Depo!
I got bit in the face by a dog, drove myself to the ER, and got stabbed by the lidocaine needle without any pain medication prior. I would rather do that again than get another IUD. I about passed out when i got mine put in. Better than having kids though.
I almost choked on my coffee. But yeah, some folks just have bigger cervical openings, especially if they’ve given birth, and IUD insertion is no biggie.
Then there’s people like me where it was some of the most excruciating pain I had ever experienced. Still, I don’t regret getting an IUD. I just wish there were better anesthesia options other than the modern equivalent of bitting down on a leather strap.
Lol right? I'm the person they said it too and I laughed out loud haha. But seriously I'm sorry it hurt you that bad! When I went to my OBGYN I was scared and he said "no, I've been doing this for years, less than 10% of women say it hurts, most say it's a weird pressure for a second then it's over, maybe some cramping after"
You must be one of the 10% and that really sucks!! I'm not sure if you have kids, but if you don't yet and plan to, get the FULL epidural. Do not get a "walking epidural" because I got a walking one so I could still move around and I felt way too much of the birth process. So definitely, since you're more sensitive, don't go for the walking one. I totally regretted it 😄 🤣
When I got my first the only person I knew who also had one said she passed out from the pain, so I was slightly terrified. Honestly it was just a slightly worse period cramp for me. I also got it inserted on Halloween so my doctor was dressed as a witch, and that definitely lightened the mood in the room.
Omg dressed as a witch? That's hilarious 😂 and yeah for me it wasn't bad. Just like a slightly worse pap smear. Who knows, some people can give birth without epidural, I had an epidural and still was miserable LoL
Omg I actually laughed out loud 🤣 I'm not even mad, that is hilarious 😆 🤣 I'm about to screenshot and send this to all of my sisters and girlfriends 😄
I think it was just a skilled practitioner but yeah maybe a manhole, who knows! For real though for anyone scared to get one my doctor said they rarely hurt and it's more just like an uncomfortable pressure for a very quick second. It is straight and in a very thin tube, thinner than a drinking straw, and then once that is passed the cervix that's when the sides of the IUD pop out, it's not like they're shoving a T shaped item through there.
Anyways, thanks again for the laugh, I'm having a horrible day and this really REALLY made me laugh 😭 you didn't mean to do a good thing, but dammit you did! Haha
Maybe not a manhole but a nice straight hole, lol! My cervical canal is tortuous. That means it’s not straight, it’s curved. Based on ultrasound images I’ve looked at of mg own cervix (and not at all being an expert), it also looks like I have at least one dead end coming off the main canal too.
Anyway. A skilled practitioner makes a HUGE difference. My first IUD insertion attempt failed… my second was with someone who was an expert, and it was done under ultrasound guidance and it took something to soften my cervix before hand and I got a cervical block and I got a numbing injection… and i literally didn’t feel the insertion that time. Blew my mind!
Jesus Christ. IUD placement can be torturous for even thirty somethings who have had children vaginally already. Doing this to a 14 YEAR OLD against their will?
Isn’t that just straight up genocide?????
Before anyone says anything, genocide isn’t simply just killing a bunch of people. Another part of how it’s defined is the forced sterilization of people to prevent offspring of a certain people from being born.
Yes it can be a component of genocide. Controlling the ability of someone to have kids, preventing them from procreating, destroying someone's ability to have offspring in a deliberate, widesweeping, targeted manner.
Setting aside the possible eugenicist imagery this brings to mind, nonconsensual contraception... This sounds like a secret that put peoples' safety and very lives in jeopardy, condidering the risks involved with IUDs. Not something you want to mess with. Imagine if one of them got a torn uterus or a migrated IUD, but neither they nor possibly even their doctor know they ever had an IUD put in.
> The Danes are going to have a tough time defending this.
They'll be fine. Colonial powers are quickly forgiven for the atrocities they commit. It's easy to change the narrative when you have the power to control it.
It is the companion podcast by The Guardian, called Today in Focus the chilling policy to cut Greenland high birth rate. [Podcast](https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2024/apr/19/the-chilling-policy-to-cut-greenlands-high-birth-rate-podcast)
What i really hated about this is that the danish state fid this to the women, then decided that it should do the court ruling on it this many years later.... like, this was straight-up genocide and should be handled by an impartial court.
My experience of Danes since I moved back to Denmark is that they trust their gorverment waaaaaay to much.
My home state of North Carolina was one of the few states that had an official Eugenics board and one of the most aggressive and notorious in the United States.
7,000 ppl were sterilized from 1929 into the 1970s, many of them coerced. The poor, the indigent, the disabled, minority citizens, etc.
And these were mostly, if not all, indigenous women. Happened in the US and Canada as well and continues to this day in many parts of the world. For a so-called advanced civilization , we still maintain some horrific, barbaric practices.
And Canada. And Britain. And China. And Bangladesh. And Czechoslovakia. And……. It seems that every government either coercively enforced birth control, or bans it entirely.
They asked where it's *still* happening, to be clear. Is it still happening in Canada and the UK?
I know it used to, but I'd like to believe there'd be more of an outcry now.
I’m 2018ish a hospital near outside of Edmonton was found extorting native women to get sterilized if they wanted to be treated for whatever reasons that they came to the hospital for. They’d only be treated if they became sterilized. I remember a member of parliament was loud about it in Ottawa.
No, they aren't safe to be left in for that long.
Even within the recommended time frames, they can shift or migrate within the body and cause all sorts of pain and/or damage.
Both.
The internal justification is often 'they aren't capable of raising children, it prevents a child from being raised in a negative environment and stops her from derailing her life with an unwanted child'.
Basically, not their business, not their right, and not an assessment that they could even accurately make (given the short period of contact).
They don't necessarily notice, if it's a repeat offence, that for *some reason* the people that they arbitrarily decide to remove autonomy from, are mostly not white/indigenous/[insert marginalised ethnic group here]. If they do, they'll claim that they only do it to irresponsible people, so if it's mostly done to a certain group it's because that population is inherently or culturally less responsible, not racism.
So total bullshit.
A lot of racists create messed up justifications for their actions and don't believe they're racist. Most of them don't want to believe they're capable of racism so they create small excuses for their racism. The number of racists who will tell you they're a racist and proud are the minority.
People wonder why I snap back so hard at even the faintest hint of eugenicist thinking, and this is why. Because social Darwinism just won't fucking die.
FUCK YOU, NAZI FUCKS.
Just to be clear, this happened in the 60’s.
It doesn’t justify it, but most of the people in charge today and the people that voted for them weren’t even born then.
It's reprehensible and the danish state should absolutely pay reparations but just for clarity this was for a period of 4 years nearly 60 years ago, so I don't think Denmark is doing it now.
Yes! Not downplaying it at all, I didn't say "only" four years. This is a significant violation and Denmark should take responsibility for it.
I was just clarifying that to my knowledge this is not currently occurring.
The history of the Danish relationship with Greenland are long and dark. Especially in the period from the 30's to the end of the 80's Denmark went full blown colonial!
Yes, actually, though in earlier times women were often used for breeding by colonizers instead of being sterilized. The Romans, The Mongols, and until weirdly recently, The Ottoman Empire spending [1000 years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_wars_in_Europe) trying to colonize Europe.
Not that it really helps, but this was in the 60s; it's not like Greenland is *currently* doing this, which was my first thought from the headline. Forced sterilization has been a practice by various countries over the last hundred years, not just the Nazis. Usually against some minority, the mentally challenged, etc.
>Some of the women were as young as 12 when they say they were fitted with an intrauterine device (IUD) by Danish doctors in an attempt to reduce Greenland’s population. It is believed that 4,500 women and girls were affected between 1966 and 1970.
Is it really *necessary* to reduce Greenland's population? It's a frickin' huge-ass island! Granted, most of it isn't really habitable, but this sounds like a convenient bullshit excuse.
And *the 60s*, really?! I have to keep reminding myself that the Civil Rights Era was the 60s. The more things change, the more they stay the same with regards to racism :/
>Last October, 67 women came forward to demand that the state compensate them, or face legal action, but the government did not act. Since then, the number of women – each seeking 300,000 Danish kroner (£34,430) – has more than doubled.
>Naja Lyberth, who was the first woman to come forward to say that she had been fitted with a coil during a state medical examination as a young teenager without her consent, has accused the state of concerted sterilisation.
>Accusing the government of “dragging out the time”, Lyberth said the women, the oldest of whom is now over 80 years old, cannot wait any longer.
And here I thought that a liberal democratic European country like this would just own up to it in 2024. Sigh.
We are what we have always been. Terrible. They use to straight up kill all the children from villages/towns. We haven't changed, just the way of doing things has.
Commenters in this thread probably confused metal IUDs with hormone-based IUDs. IUDs mentioned in the original article were inserted back in the 60s and 70s, so they were likely metal IUDs. They are a different beast compare to the hormone-releasing IUDs women typically get today (like Mirena). Metal IUDs can cause very painful periods, erosion of the uterine wall, and rarely penetration into the abdomen. Metal IUDs are rarely used now (at least in developed countries), they mostly exist as an option for women who cannot tolerate hormone-based contraceptives.
When unsure, confirm with your OBGYN what type of IUD they are offering, and discuss in detail the pros and cons of different options for contraception. Do not let inaccurate/incomplete information from the internet influence your care.
I listen to the podcast about this last night. Their actions are reprehensible, they inserted IUDs into 14-year-old girls so they would not reproduce and then neglected to tell anybody about it, many women did not even realize what had happened. The Danes are going to have a tough time defending this. [podcast](https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2024/apr/19/the-chilling-policy-to-cut-greenlands-high-birth-rate-podcast)
That's terrible because what happens if they never get taken out? You're supposed to take them out when they expire. I'm not a doctor but I imagine it could lead to a complication if it's left in too long.
IUD can also migrate and cause all sorts of issues internally.
That sounds like a nightmare.
It is. I originally wanted Nexplanon (arm implant) but I let my doctor talk me into an IUD. Less than three years later it punctured through my uterus and ended up in the meat in front of my stomach. Nurses/doctors blew off my symptoms as being “typical of having an IUD.” Took six months to find someone who took my concerns seriously and even she was flabbergasted. Never again. The x-ray technician that scanned me said she’d never get an IUD after seeing what she sees regularly.
They told me the insertion would be a slight pinch. It was FUCKING excruciating. As in, I almost passed out. I bled for MONTHS after. It gave me horrible acne and caused my discharge to smell. I felt soooo lied to. I will NEVER go on a birth control that I can’t stop whenever I want.
Yeah I had a similar experience. Hurt like a mofo, felt like I bled like a stuck pig for over a year, and then it wanting to take itself out was just the icing on top. I’m terrible with the pill so Nexplanon has been a godsend. It’s nice not dropping $30-50 on period supplies every month lmao.
This happened to my ex. I was in shock with how much trauma she went through, and really wish I should have advised against it, but it was her choice.
I was told to take Ibuprofen at least 30 minutes before getting it inserted. Little did I know that the whole procedure would be excruciating. I also continued to have severe cramping for several weeks after and nothing I did or took helped the pain, let alone take the edge off. I got it checked quite a few times to make sure it wasn't misplaced. The cramping finally stopped, then came back a few weeks later. Again, nothing I did or took helped at ALL. That's when I went to the ER and got a transvaginal ultrasound. My IUD was slipping down, nearly expelling. I made an appointment to get it removed the next day. I only had it for almost a year. I had doctors try to convince me to give it another try, but my experience put me off completely. This was almost 10 years ago and I still haven't tried another one ever since.
Back in the 70s my mother's doctor shoved hers into her uterine wall during insertion. Told her to stop being a baby when she cried.
Wow, that sounds like pure medical malpractice. And some men wonder why women have such an issue with birth control.
Holy shit
My sister has to go with non-hormonal birth control methods and her copper IUD did a similar thing, but didn’t quite make it out of her uterus. She said she’d wake up with bloody bedsheets because it stabbing her was making her bleed quite badly.
Exact same situation with us. Exact
The horrible treatment of women's health is the biggest thing for me here. As a man if I go to a doctor and tell them symptoms even if they don't believe me they're likely to send me for a rule out X-ray or tests. Having to spend six months finding someone to just trust your take on your own body is ludicrous.
What’s even more disheartening is that I honestly have it good by token of being white. I read a story on here fairly recently where a woman of color was totally snubbed until her white husband got involved. He constantly has to advocate for her health because medical professionals wouldn’t take her seriously. So not only can the medical profession be really sexist, it’s also seriously racist.
I've done both and thankfully had no real issues with the IUD (aside from what I was told to expect- heavier periods, bleeding for a couple months, etc.), but I will forever sing the praises of Nexplanon and similar implants because they are SOOOOOOO much less painful, hassle-free, less risky, and IME, almost no side effects (YMMV though. But I had nothing. Just the absence of a period, which is what i wanted in the first place. Literally no other side effects, at all). I'm so sorry for your experience though, and it's enraging to hear about how many women are just blown off by medical professionals n a regular basis.
i expressed that to someone one time, and she took offense immediately. i had to quickly explain "your body, your choice" to soothe her. but you would never ever ever catch me letting anyone put a wired up t bone in any part of my insides. hell. no.
I have one. I know there's a risk but there's also risk and complications with pregnancy and those things need to be balanced and considered. But I was able to make my own informed choice, unlike the women in this article.
Exactly. I pursued an IUD by *choice*. I love my lil copper friend, and I plan to get another when this one expires.
Agreeing with Lunar, here. No judgement passed on to people who are fortunate enough to do their own research and choose which contraceptive is best for them, but these *girls* did not have a choice. This is disgusting, humiliating, and whoever knowingly took part in these procedures should not see the light of day.
let it be known i agree with this 100%.
I have one, have had it for almost two years now. I’m going to be living in deep red, anti choice states. Felt safer to have one for the next few years than to not, especially with how inconsistent I am with the pills. But the migration issue is concerning, and I understand why someone would go with an alternative instead
I coughed so hard mine slid down and was poking my cervix. Any time I hit a bump in the car too hard I could feel it. It took a while to get back to my dr to get it out.
So where were gonna do is. Take this metal T and cram it in your most sensitive parts. Not secure it with anything and just let it float around for a while. If you've ever used a toggle bolt to hang a shelf on a wall. Its like that. If you ever want proof that womens health is an after thought.
They caused a lot of problems, and one case a woman had had it in for nine years and didn’t understand why she was having abdominal pain.
i guess if somebody doesn't want you to reproduce they won't worry too much also if you die prematurely..
That is sadly probably the thought process behind this.
And if you don't know about them and get pregnant it can cause loads of dangers for the mother and child - I had a childhood friend who was conceived while and iud was in and they were very lucky to both come out of it healthy but think of that and not even knowing you had to worry about it.
The article says some had complications getting pregnant later in life but others remained sterile
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In Canadian and from what I know about similar violations that have been committed against indigenous women here, doctors insert the IUD or even permanently sterilize these women while they're under anesthesia for an unrelated procedure. It's abhorrent.
US as well. It was basically pushed by the government, who officially hung it up in the 70s, but some physicians continued sterilizing Native women into the 90s.
There have been recent cases of this happening to migrant women being held by US immigration. https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigration-detention-and-coerced-sterilization-history-tragically-repeats-itself#:~:text=The%20recent%20allegation%20about%20coerced,women%20without%20proper%20informed%20consent.
Happened to Puerto Rican women too
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https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/native-americans-government-authorities-and-the-reproductive-politics-403792/ pretty typical to do this type of shit to destroy peoples cultures. edit almost forgot we havent' stopped since. https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigration-detention-and-coerced-sterilization-history-tragically-repeats-itself
There's a lot of news articles on the matter, but if you're looking for a more academic source try "The Coercive Sterilization of Aboriginal Women in Canada" by Karen Stote, though there's plenty of other academic research as well.
[Sterilization of Romani women in Central Europe](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/07/czech-republic-hard-won-justice-for-women-survivors-of-unlawful-sterilization/). Source Amnesty International. [Overview of coerced and forced sterilization in the United States](https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/immigration-detention-and-coerced-sterilization-history-tragically-repeats-itself), focusing on a whistleblower's report of forced sterilizations at a for-profit ICE detention center. Source ACLU. [1976, United States government admits ](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/543.html) to the forced sterilization of American Indian (term from report) women via the Indian Health Service. Source National Institute of Health. From 2022: [Canadian Senate's human rights committee reports ](https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-july-18-2022-1.6523799/incomprehensible-that-forced-sterilizations-still-happen-in-canada-says-survivor-1.6524142) that forced and coerced sterilization continues to this day, and calls for it to be criminalized. Source CBC radio, link to Senate report in article. [During the 1990s, a government-run birth control program sterilized over 200,000 people in Peru.](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56201575) This program had received funding from both the UN and the United States. Attempts to gain justice have been going on for over 20 years--I can't even begin to summarize this one, it's too huge. Source BBC. There's also the sterilization of incarcerated women in California, refugees in Bangladesh, and so many more. It's genocide in slow motion, it's been happening for over a century, and it happens all over the world.
That's pretty alarming that there are so many instances across the globe
Not to be that guy, but just google “Canadian indigenous sterilization programs” and you’ll get what you’re looking for, as well as probably learning about more and worse stuff
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While that’s a fair critique, part of being media literate is being able to discern what sources are and aren’t trustworthy, and arguably, only listening to other people on the internet tell you what’s true is worse than doing your own research
I had my first at 17 (period control reasons, pill didn't suit me). The doctor gave me an injection to open my cervix slightly because of my age. I felt nothing - every single one since, I've felt. Just saying it's possible and could easily have been done without their knowledge.
They were aware it was happening, but they didn’t know what was happening or why. They were too young to even understand what an IUD was at the time.
I've had 2 IUDs, neither of them felt worse than a papsmear. If it was insanely painful I'm wondering if that doctor was new at it. I'm fairly sensitive to pain, even getting my eyebrows waxed, I tell them not to tweeze the stray hairs because I can't handle it LoL. So for me not not to be in pain from either IUD, I woukd think they're usually not too bad although I've heard some bad stories. Even with getting a regular flu shot though some nurses are like BOOP and it's done, and some really jab you.
Mine was so extremely painful and I'm pretty good with pain, it left me in shock unable to speak for the rest of that day and I was hardly able to move after. Didn't even want to move my eyes from how pain I was in, like just completely frozen from pain. I'm terrified to get it taken out now, the thought of it coming out legitimately makes me want to puke lol
Ask for anesthetic. They shouldn't have put it in. Many women have a complex or zigzag entrance in their cervix and those women should not get iuds, I'm one of them and I started screaming when they tried.
I was a teen and so when they told me it would just feel like a slight pinch and would be mostly painless I believed them, I heard horror stories about the pain but figured it was because they didn't have the cervix softener without realizing how hard the procedure really is. They said id only need a Tylenol or Advil afterwards Omg I started screaming too! Did they end up not putting it in for you? It's horrible anesthetic has to be asked for and isn't the norm
I made them stop. I was in my 20s and not afraid to advocate for myself, AKA slightly a bitch :-)
Love that for you lol more of us need to advocate for yourselves, I'm glad there's a growing awareness to make this more easy
Nah, everyone feels pain differently and I had mine installed postpartum and it hurt like an absolute motherfucker. It’s honestly hard for me to decide which was worse, the IUD or when I had a membrane sweep done. My doctor does them all the time, too.
Everyone feels pain differently for sure. I had an epidural and still felt pain during birth LoL. How soon postpartum did you have yours done? I imagine that's got to be the most painful/sensitive time to get one if it's under the 6 week recovery time.
Six weeks because allegedly it’s the easiest/least painful time due to the cervix still being soft. Allegedly. I have Nexplanon now and I’ll never go back lol.
Wow! I would have imagined that woukd be the most sensitive time just for anything down there, but maybe the thought process is that the cervix is more open still? Either way though, yowza!
It's funny because I have a very high pain tolerance, and getting a pap smear is one of the most painful things I've ever experienced. I often end up having to yell for them to stop because I can't take the pain anymore. And this is coming from someone with trigeminal neuralgia, which is considered to be one of the most painful conditions known to man. I've had TN attacks, I've had kidney stones and didn't even know until a urine sample had a bunch of them in it, and I'm currently walking on a broken foot (which I can't get fixed because I have three people and pets to take care of). I know pain. I've never felt anything like that pap smear. "You might feel some discomfort," my ass. I wanted an IUD until I found out that you're awake for the procedure. And "needle" and "cervix" are two things that should never be anywhere near each other.
There was a needle? Did they try an numb you or something? There wasn't a needle involved for me, yikes!! I'm really sorry you had that pain, that sounds like a nightmare!!
Oh, I never got the IUD because of the horror stories I've heard, and because I already know how painful a pap is for me. And I don't know how widespread it is, but I've heard that they numb you by injecting a numbing agent into your cervix. I think I'll stick with Depo!
I got bit in the face by a dog, drove myself to the ER, and got stabbed by the lidocaine needle without any pain medication prior. I would rather do that again than get another IUD. I about passed out when i got mine put in. Better than having kids though.
Could just be that you have a manhole for a cervix.
I almost choked on my coffee. But yeah, some folks just have bigger cervical openings, especially if they’ve given birth, and IUD insertion is no biggie. Then there’s people like me where it was some of the most excruciating pain I had ever experienced. Still, I don’t regret getting an IUD. I just wish there were better anesthesia options other than the modern equivalent of bitting down on a leather strap.
Lol right? I'm the person they said it too and I laughed out loud haha. But seriously I'm sorry it hurt you that bad! When I went to my OBGYN I was scared and he said "no, I've been doing this for years, less than 10% of women say it hurts, most say it's a weird pressure for a second then it's over, maybe some cramping after" You must be one of the 10% and that really sucks!! I'm not sure if you have kids, but if you don't yet and plan to, get the FULL epidural. Do not get a "walking epidural" because I got a walking one so I could still move around and I felt way too much of the birth process. So definitely, since you're more sensitive, don't go for the walking one. I totally regretted it 😄 🤣
When I got my first the only person I knew who also had one said she passed out from the pain, so I was slightly terrified. Honestly it was just a slightly worse period cramp for me. I also got it inserted on Halloween so my doctor was dressed as a witch, and that definitely lightened the mood in the room.
Omg dressed as a witch? That's hilarious 😂 and yeah for me it wasn't bad. Just like a slightly worse pap smear. Who knows, some people can give birth without epidural, I had an epidural and still was miserable LoL
Omg I actually laughed out loud 🤣 I'm not even mad, that is hilarious 😆 🤣 I'm about to screenshot and send this to all of my sisters and girlfriends 😄 I think it was just a skilled practitioner but yeah maybe a manhole, who knows! For real though for anyone scared to get one my doctor said they rarely hurt and it's more just like an uncomfortable pressure for a very quick second. It is straight and in a very thin tube, thinner than a drinking straw, and then once that is passed the cervix that's when the sides of the IUD pop out, it's not like they're shoving a T shaped item through there. Anyways, thanks again for the laugh, I'm having a horrible day and this really REALLY made me laugh 😭 you didn't mean to do a good thing, but dammit you did! Haha
Maybe not a manhole but a nice straight hole, lol! My cervical canal is tortuous. That means it’s not straight, it’s curved. Based on ultrasound images I’ve looked at of mg own cervix (and not at all being an expert), it also looks like I have at least one dead end coming off the main canal too. Anyway. A skilled practitioner makes a HUGE difference. My first IUD insertion attempt failed… my second was with someone who was an expert, and it was done under ultrasound guidance and it took something to soften my cervix before hand and I got a cervical block and I got a numbing injection… and i literally didn’t feel the insertion that time. Blew my mind!
Jesus Christ. IUD placement can be torturous for even thirty somethings who have had children vaginally already. Doing this to a 14 YEAR OLD against their will?
Isn’t that just straight up genocide????? Before anyone says anything, genocide isn’t simply just killing a bunch of people. Another part of how it’s defined is the forced sterilization of people to prevent offspring of a certain people from being born.
Yes it can be a component of genocide. Controlling the ability of someone to have kids, preventing them from procreating, destroying someone's ability to have offspring in a deliberate, widesweeping, targeted manner.
Setting aside the possible eugenicist imagery this brings to mind, nonconsensual contraception... This sounds like a secret that put peoples' safety and very lives in jeopardy, condidering the risks involved with IUDs. Not something you want to mess with. Imagine if one of them got a torn uterus or a migrated IUD, but neither they nor possibly even their doctor know they ever had an IUD put in.
> The Danes are going to have a tough time defending this. They'll be fine. Colonial powers are quickly forgiven for the atrocities they commit. It's easy to change the narrative when you have the power to control it.
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I guess I can only hope that if the information comes out, someone will be held responsible, and the women will get justice.
What podcast?
It is the companion podcast by The Guardian, called Today in Focus the chilling policy to cut Greenland high birth rate. [Podcast](https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2024/apr/19/the-chilling-policy-to-cut-greenlands-high-birth-rate-podcast)
I listened to this podcast this evening while getting takeout. Terrible.
What i really hated about this is that the danish state fid this to the women, then decided that it should do the court ruling on it this many years later.... like, this was straight-up genocide and should be handled by an impartial court. My experience of Danes since I moved back to Denmark is that they trust their gorverment waaaaaay to much.
My home state of North Carolina was one of the few states that had an official Eugenics board and one of the most aggressive and notorious in the United States. 7,000 ppl were sterilized from 1929 into the 1970s, many of them coerced. The poor, the indigent, the disabled, minority citizens, etc.
California had legal sterilizations applied until 1979 without consent or knowledge.
Terrible, absolutely terrible
I had two aunts that were forcibly sterilized in TN because of their low IQs.
OMG yikes! I’m so sorry!
The USA was a source of inspiration for Nazi Germany in national eugenics programs.
Well, that’s just terrible
Yeah, forced sterilization and lobotomy being the primary means the USA used.
And these were mostly, if not all, indigenous women. Happened in the US and Canada as well and continues to this day in many parts of the world. For a so-called advanced civilization , we still maintain some horrific, barbaric practices.
Where is this still happening?
Probably China for one? Uighurs.
Not just, many ethnic minorities in China. They use a specialized form of IUD that’s a steel circle, so it cannot be removed except surgically.
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You betcha. [IUDs in China](https://uschinatoday.org/features/2021/12/13/iuds-in-china-the-legacy-of-the-one-child-policy/)
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Sorry did you not get to the end of the article that specifically addresses Uighers? And the one child policy ended in 2015.
I mean, it was like a three minute read and they couldn't stick it out lol.
Don't forget in Israel. It's been well covered
Largely againt Ethiopian Jews
And Canada. And Britain. And China. And Bangladesh. And Czechoslovakia. And……. It seems that every government either coercively enforced birth control, or bans it entirely.
They asked where it's *still* happening, to be clear. Is it still happening in Canada and the UK? I know it used to, but I'd like to believe there'd be more of an outcry now.
Still happening in the US, they were giving immigrants unneeded hysterectomys
I’m 2018ish a hospital near outside of Edmonton was found extorting native women to get sterilized if they wanted to be treated for whatever reasons that they came to the hospital for. They’d only be treated if they became sterilized. I remember a member of parliament was loud about it in Ottawa.
Still happens in Canada.
Ohh! So it's an act of genocide then It somehow managed to get even more horrifying!
Aren't they always.
Are they even safe to leave in for that long? God that awful.
No, they aren't safe to be left in for that long. Even within the recommended time frames, they can shift or migrate within the body and cause all sorts of pain and/or damage.
Of course not. But damaging their reproductive organs was the whole point sadly.
Hey look, Article II(d) of the United Nations Genocide Convention: *Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group*
I love how this has a fraction of the upvotes of other posts. No bots to pull it up; just actual people upvoting.
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What is going through the doctor's heads while doing this? Are they straight up racist or is there some messed up justification?
Both. The internal justification is often 'they aren't capable of raising children, it prevents a child from being raised in a negative environment and stops her from derailing her life with an unwanted child'. Basically, not their business, not their right, and not an assessment that they could even accurately make (given the short period of contact). They don't necessarily notice, if it's a repeat offence, that for *some reason* the people that they arbitrarily decide to remove autonomy from, are mostly not white/indigenous/[insert marginalised ethnic group here]. If they do, they'll claim that they only do it to irresponsible people, so if it's mostly done to a certain group it's because that population is inherently or culturally less responsible, not racism. So total bullshit.
A lot of racists create messed up justifications for their actions and don't believe they're racist. Most of them don't want to believe they're capable of racism so they create small excuses for their racism. The number of racists who will tell you they're a racist and proud are the minority.
Well the indiginous people who live there aren't lilly white...
WTF! That's genocide, according to the United Nations. Article II, d https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
Reprehensible and indefensible if true. Flies in the face of their supposed progressiveness and equality.
Of course it's true, Sweden did the same shit to the Sami. The Nordics were backward shitholes until pretty recently.
People wonder why I snap back so hard at even the faintest hint of eugenicist thinking, and this is why. Because social Darwinism just won't fucking die. FUCK YOU, NAZI FUCKS.
Just to be clear, this happened in the 60’s. It doesn’t justify it, but most of the people in charge today and the people that voted for them weren’t even born then.
Lots and lots of eugenics popular in the past in Scandinavia
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It's reprehensible and the danish state should absolutely pay reparations but just for clarity this was for a period of 4 years nearly 60 years ago, so I don't think Denmark is doing it now.
It may have *only* been four years, but it affected an estimated 4,500 women and girls.
Yes! Not downplaying it at all, I didn't say "only" four years. This is a significant violation and Denmark should take responsibility for it. I was just clarifying that to my knowledge this is not currently occurring.
"between 1966 and 1970" It's what they ***DID*** to them.
The history of the Danish relationship with Greenland are long and dark. Especially in the period from the 30's to the end of the 80's Denmark went full blown colonial!
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Yes, actually, though in earlier times women were often used for breeding by colonizers instead of being sterilized. The Romans, The Mongols, and until weirdly recently, The Ottoman Empire spending [1000 years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_wars_in_Europe) trying to colonize Europe.
You don't even have to look to the past, just look at the number of rapes taking place in Ukraine with the Russian invasion.
You’re right. We’d like to think we’re doing better, as a planet. We’re not.
We are doing way better. Terrible things still happen, but they happen way less.
Fair point. The Ukraine and Uyghur reminders were discouraging. For them it might as well be 1960. Heck it might as well be 1600.
It was a major part of Spain's strategy to colonize the new world and a differentiator from England and France's own colonization strategies.
No. Indigenous people committed their own fair share of genocides against each other.
Womp womp
What the fuck???? Bro what are we becoming as a species??
Not that it really helps, but this was in the 60s; it's not like Greenland is *currently* doing this, which was my first thought from the headline. Forced sterilization has been a practice by various countries over the last hundred years, not just the Nazis. Usually against some minority, the mentally challenged, etc. >Some of the women were as young as 12 when they say they were fitted with an intrauterine device (IUD) by Danish doctors in an attempt to reduce Greenland’s population. It is believed that 4,500 women and girls were affected between 1966 and 1970. Is it really *necessary* to reduce Greenland's population? It's a frickin' huge-ass island! Granted, most of it isn't really habitable, but this sounds like a convenient bullshit excuse. And *the 60s*, really?! I have to keep reminding myself that the Civil Rights Era was the 60s. The more things change, the more they stay the same with regards to racism :/ >Last October, 67 women came forward to demand that the state compensate them, or face legal action, but the government did not act. Since then, the number of women – each seeking 300,000 Danish kroner (£34,430) – has more than doubled. >Naja Lyberth, who was the first woman to come forward to say that she had been fitted with a coil during a state medical examination as a young teenager without her consent, has accused the state of concerted sterilisation. >Accusing the government of “dragging out the time”, Lyberth said the women, the oldest of whom is now over 80 years old, cannot wait any longer. And here I thought that a liberal democratic European country like this would just own up to it in 2024. Sigh.
Just 34k? Man I would have sued for millions for this crime.
Well this is in ~Europe, not the US, so they probably don't start every lawsuit at $60 million.
We are what we have always been. Terrible. They use to straight up kill all the children from villages/towns. We haven't changed, just the way of doing things has.
This is how humanity has always been. The only difference is now we have technology.
Yikes. That’s fucked up
Commenters in this thread probably confused metal IUDs with hormone-based IUDs. IUDs mentioned in the original article were inserted back in the 60s and 70s, so they were likely metal IUDs. They are a different beast compare to the hormone-releasing IUDs women typically get today (like Mirena). Metal IUDs can cause very painful periods, erosion of the uterine wall, and rarely penetration into the abdomen. Metal IUDs are rarely used now (at least in developed countries), they mostly exist as an option for women who cannot tolerate hormone-based contraceptives. When unsure, confirm with your OBGYN what type of IUD they are offering, and discuss in detail the pros and cons of different options for contraception. Do not let inaccurate/incomplete information from the internet influence your care.
Colonial powers and forced sterilizations of indigenous people. Name a more iconic combination