• Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, Carrie A Lewis, Melanie S Dove, Eryn Murphy, Diana Zuckerman, Claudia Nunez-Eddy, Daniel J Tancredi, Raegan McDonald-Mosley, Sarita Sonalkar, Mark Hathaway, and Aileen M Gariepy.
• Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA. Eleanor.Schwarz@ucsf.edu.
• J Gen Intern Med. 2022 Dec 1; 37 (16): 416841754168-4175.

BackgroundTubal ligation remains common in the USA, especially among low-income patients.ObjectiveTo compare the effectiveness and safety of intrauterine contraceptives (IUC) to laparoscopic tubal ligation for Medicaid clients.DesignWe partnered with patient and clinician stakeholders to conduct a retrospective cohort study using California Medicaid claims for patients who had an IUC placed or laparoscopic tubal ligation performed in 2008-2014, excluding procedures performed within 42 days of a birth. We applied log-linear (Poisson) event-history regression models for clustered person-period data to adjust for sociodemographic variables and pre-procedure health status when examining associations between these contraceptive procedures and claims related to contraceptive failure, complications, and pain in the first year post-procedure.Key ResultsWe identified 35,705 patients who had a levonorgestrel IUC placed, 23,628 patients who had a copper IUC placed, and 23,965 patients who underwent laparoscopic tubal ligation. In unadjusted analyses, rates of pregnancy within 1 year were similar following levonorgestrel IUC (2.40%) or copper IUC placement (2.99%) or tubal ligation (2.64%). In adjusted analyses, compared to tubal ligation, pregnancy was less common following placement of a levonorgestrel IUC (adj IRR 0.72, 95% CI 0.64-0.82) and similar with placement of a copper IUC (adj IRR 0.92, 95% CI 0.82-1.05). Procedural complications such as infection (0.35% vs. 2.91%) were significantly less common with IUC placement than tubal ligation. Claims for pelvic and abdominal pain decreased in frequency with time since all procedures; 6 to 12 months post-procedure, pelvic pain claims were less common after levonorgestrel IUC (adj IRR 0.69, 95% CI 0.65-0.73) or copper IUC placement (adj IRR 0.70, 95% CI 0.66-0.75) than tubal ligation.ConclusionsIUC appears at least as effective as laparoscopic tubal ligation at 1-year post-procedure with lower rates of infection and pelvic pain 6 to 12 months post-procedure.Clinical Trial RegistrationNCT03438682.© 2022. The Author(s).

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