Key clinical point: A review of 58 YouTube videos on removal of long-acting reversible contraception showed more than 4 million views overall; reasons for removal included negative side effects, fear of side effects, and desire for pregnancy.
Major finding: Most of the women who created the 58 videos were white (53%), 31% were Black, and 14% were Latina. Of these, 56 of 58 successfully removed their device and described the experience as positive in terms of ease of removal.
Study details: The data come from a review of 58 videos on self-removal of long-acting reversible contraception based on YouTube keyword searches. The videos included 48 individuals removing an intrauterine device and 10 removing an implant.
Disclosures: The study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.
Source: Broussard K and Becker A. Contraception. 2021 Aug 13. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2021.08.002.