Cytologic studies after insertion of intrauterine contraceptive devices.

Abstract

To determine if IUD users have a higher incidence of uterine cancer than nonusers comparative cytologic examinations were made of vaginal smears of 1058 women who had worn IUDs for at least 5 years and 7226 women without IUDs. The women were over 30-years-old but not menopausal. The cells were classified into 4 groups following the Sugimoto Matsueda system rather than the Papanicolaou. There was no statistically significant difference in the 2 groups in the incidence of negative and suspicious smears. There were no positive smears in the IUD-using group but 68 women had suspicious smears which were found not malignant in final diagnoses. Of the control group 14 had positive smears. None of the 14 had ever used an IUD. Although the test group was considerably smaller than the control group this study suggests that there is no significant difference in the incidence of uterine cancer between women who use IUDs and women who do not.