What: Physician Christine Henneberg writes that CDC guidance that physicians actually consider pain mitigation when placing IUDs is a welcome start, but: “ … as a physician who performs hundreds of gynecologic procedures every year, including IUD placements, I can say with certainty that lidocaine will not solve the problem. And although counseling about pain is important, the fact that the C.D.C. has to remind doctors about this basic component of informed consent shows how deep the problem runs.”
Why it matters: “When practitioners and policymakers wring our hands over the maternal mortality crisis in this country (our unacceptably high rate is about three times as high for Black women as for white women), we must acknowledge that this is partly a crisis of trust and that we are responsible for it. … Lidocaine is, to be sure, a valuable pain management tool for IUD insertion and other gynecologic procedures. I use it all the time. But the pain isn’t the only problem; sometimes it isn’t even the main problem. Women are capable and often quite willing to tolerate pain as an expected part of a medical procedure, when it’s acknowledged and taken seriously. It’s the betrayal that is egregious and permanent — and unlike pain, this betrayal is entirely preventable. It requires only that we slow down, listen to patients and tell them the truth.”
Source: New York Times