Originally Published in Print, September 2021
Contraception in Ireland has historically been a contentious issue. Contraception was never made available for women or men, either under English rule or in the Republic. Then, in 1985, the Family Planning Act was passed. The Family Planning Act made the sale of contraception in Ireland legal. The plan was made available for married couples, with the intention that married couples could plan the size of their families under the new legislation. This was seen as a “defiance” against the Catholic Church, and caused widespread controversy among different communities in the country.
Interestingly, when it comes to women’s reproductive rights in this country, we perhaps haven’t come as far in the 36 years since 1985 as we would like to think we have. While the 8th amendment was repealed in 2018, which made it possible for women with unwanted pregnancies of up to 12 weeks to seek an abortion, contraceptive choice in Ireland is lacking at the best of times. The options that are presented to women today remain quite limited, ranging from either the contraception pill or condoms; the choices we are offered are few and far between.
I regularly struggle with my periods; sometimes it can result in horrendous pain and not being able to leave my bed due to the pain. As an alternative to the pill, I was presented with the option of having the coil (also known as an IUD – an Intrauterine device) inserted, which I knew very little about at the time, by my younger cousin. My cousin had a coil inserted for similar reasons. However, when I went to my doctor to discuss an IUD as an option to relieve my symptoms, he frankly didn’t want to know and just prescribed me a different contraceptive pill, which did not alleviate any of the problems I was having. I was also told by a gynaecologist that I was “too young” to have the coil inserted in place of taking the daily contraceptive pill. I was 19 when the doctor told me this.
Two years, and a few lengthy lockdowns later, I decided to research alternative contraceptive options for myself, and find out what was available in Ireland. Despite my doctor’s protests, there seemed to be no restriction on when you could have the coil inserted. The same can be said for the bar. Despite this several different individuals, including my doctor, had told me that I was “too young”. I should emphasise that I do not take contraceptive decisions lightly. I am aware that having the coil inserted in Ireland seems to come with its own horrors. While most countries offer anaesthesia (either local or general) for the insertion of the coil – considering that it can be quite painful – no such common practice takes place here at home. In a lot of cases, a cervix relaxer isn’t even offered to women undergoing the procedure.
The potential lack of pain relief offered to patients was something I found quite shocking, especially given the nature of the coil insertion procedure. But, what is even more horrifying, is that this seems commonplace. Over the last couple of months, women have been sharing their experiences of having an IUD inserted in Ireland. The overwhelming consensus to be drawn from these narratives is that Irish doctors largely underestimate how painful the procedure can be, and are not offering appropriate pain medication during the insertion. There are countless stories of women who have even passed out from the pain, and, while there have been reports of some positive experiences, they appear to be the result of GPs prescribing pain medication in advance of the surgery.
Carrying out my research, it struck me that the problem seems to lie in the fact that there is no prescribed practice for the insertion of an IUD in Ireland. The lack of strict procedural guidelines is perhaps symptomatic of how, in this country, the State can fail to take women’s reproductive health adequately seriously. From a personal standpoint, being told I was “too young” to have any sort of IUD inserted at 19, to the procedures themselves being carelessly handled, current access to female contraception in Ireland forces us to ask the question of how far we’ve really come in 30+ years, and how much further we still have to go.
