IUD Insertion Pain: What Women Actually Report
Women describe what IUD insertion felt like, why the pain was so often dismissed, and what pain relief options they wish they had known to ask for.
· By The Editors · 3 min read
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Short answer: reported experiences range from brief cramping to severe pain, and a large share of women describe being told beforehand that it would feel like a period cramp when for them it did not. Pain relief options exist and are not always offered; asking about them in advance is the single most repeated piece of advice.
Few procedures have generated as much public conversation recently, largely because so many women found their experience did not match what they were told to expect. What follows comes from first-person accounts gathered for our women's health volumes.
The range is wide, and that matters
Some women describe a few seconds of sharp cramping and walking out fine. Others describe pain they rank among the worst of their lives, along with sweating, nausea, and in some cases fainting during or immediately after.
Both are real. The problem people identify is not that the procedure hurts for everyone, but that the counselling before it was written for the easier end of that range.
The moment people describe as worst
Accounts are specific. The speculum is uncomfortable. The tenaculum, a clamp on the cervix, is frequently named as sharper than expected. The sounding, when the uterus is measured, is the point most people identify as the peak. Insertion itself is usually described as brief.
Several describe an unexpected wave of nausea or faintness afterwards, which is common and which few were warned about.
What made it easier
Across accounts, the factors that recur: a clinician who explained each step as it happened, taking anti-inflammatory pain relief in advance where advised, someone to travel home with, and nothing scheduled for the rest of the day.
Women who had given birth vaginally more often describe an easier time, though this is not universal. Women who had never been pregnant more often describe severe pain, and several say they wish that pattern had been mentioned to them.
Pain relief options women wish they had known to ask about
Accounts mention local anaesthetic injected into the cervix, topical anaesthetic gel, and in some settings sedation or a general anaesthetic for those with a history of severe pain or trauma. Availability varies enormously by clinic and by country, and several women describe being told nothing was available until they specifically asked.
The most repeated advice: raise pain relief at the booking stage, not on the day, and say plainly if you have a history of painful procedures, difficult smears, or medical trauma.
The dismissal, which is the real subject
What people write about most is not the pain but being told it would not hurt, and then not being believed when it did. Several describe asking the clinician to stop and not being stopped. Those accounts are among the most difficult in the collection, and they are the reason this subject reached public attention at all.
Several women also describe excellent care: clinicians who paused, checked, offered anaesthetic, and treated the pain as information rather than exaggeration.
Would they do it again
Notably, most say yes. Many describe years of highly effective contraception, lighter or absent periods, and freedom from a daily pill, and consider a bad twenty minutes a fair price. They want the twenty minutes described honestly, not avoided.
Reading further
Full-length accounts of contraception, gynaecological procedures, endometriosis, and reproductive health are collected in our Women's Reproductive Health volumes, with related accounts in Sexual & Intimate Health.
Sources and further reading
- U.S. Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use, 2024. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 2024.
- Getting an IUD (intrauterine device) or copper coil fitted or removed. NHS, reviewed February 2024.
- Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC): Intrauterine Device (IUD) and Implant. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, updated August 2026.
- ACOG Clinical Consensus No. 9: Pain Management for In-Office Uterine and Cervical Procedures. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2025.
About this article: it summarises themes across first-person accounts collected by Healing Stories Network. It is not medical advice, and no clinician has reviewed it. Pain relief options and their suitability vary by individual and by clinic; discuss them with your own provider. Authoritative clinical information on intrauterine devices is available from the NHS, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the CDC.
The Reading Room publishes personal stories and editorial notes from our press. Everything here is companion reading — never medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For guidance about your own health, please speak with a qualified clinician. Read how we collect and edit patient testimony in our Editorial Standards, or meet the editors on our Editors & Contributors page.
If this piece was useful, the volumes below hold fifty full-length accounts from people who have been through it — the part an article can only summarise.
