Association of Intrauterine Device (IUD) and Cervical Neoplasia - A Study in a Poor Nigerian Population

Intrauterine Device (IUD) is a contraceptive method used by women of reproductive age group. However, there are conflicting reports on the association between IUD and cervical neoplasia. These controversies may further hamper the poor uptake of modern contraception in Nigeria. This study was therefore aimed at evaluating the association between IUD and cervical neoplasia. This was a case control study in which Pap smear results of 156 participants on IUD were compared with those of 156 non-users of modern contraception. The participants who were found to have abnormal cervical smear cytology results were further subjected to colposcopy. Biopsy specimens for histology were collected from the participants with obvious cervical lesions or those with suspicious lesions on colposcopy. The results were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics at 95% level of confidence. Seven (4.5%) and 2(1.3%) of participants using IUD had Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) 1 and CIN 2 respectively. Also, 5(3.2%) and 1(0.6%) of non-users of modern contraception had CIN 1 and CIN 2 respectively. The prevalence of cervical neoplasia among all the participants was 4.8%. Although, the proportion of women who had CIN was more among participants using IUD than non-users of modern contraception, the difference was not statistically significant. There was no significant association between IUD and cervical neoplasia in this study.