Nishmat's Women’s Health and HalachaIn memory of Chaya Mirel bat R' Avraham

  • Hebrew
  • English
  • Espnaol
  • Francais
  • donate
Menu

Backup for copper IUD

26 February, 2018

Question:

I’m a 37 year old woman who has four children. I was recently diagnosed with a medical condition that makes further pregnancies dangerous for me and for the fetus. I currently have a copper IUD. I need a second form of contraception or something even more effective than the copper IUD alone at preventing pregnancy. I have a strong family history of breast cancer and am reluctant to take any estrogen. What do you suggest?


Answer:

We are sorry to hear of your situation.

The copper IUD is approximately 99.2% effective. You could use either spermicide or a diaphragm with spermicide as an additional backup method. This would get you about as close to 100 percent as one can with reversible contraception.

Alternatively, you may want to discuss the Mirena IUD with your physician. This is approximately 99.9% effective and contains progesterone, not estrogen.

Please feel free to get back to us with any further questions.

B’hatzlacha!


This internet service does not preclude, override or replace the psak of any rabbinical authority. It is the responsibility of the questioner to inform us of any previous consultation or ruling. As even slight variation in circumstances may have Halachic consequences, views expressed concerning one case may not be applied to other, seemingly similar cases. All health and health-related information contained within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is intended to be general in nature and should not be used as a substitute for consulting with your health care professional. The advice is intended to offer a basis for individuals to discuss their medical condition with their health care provider but not individual advice. Although every effort is made to ensure that the material within Nishmat's Women's Health & Halacha Web site is accurate and timely, it is provided for the convenience of the Web site user but should not be considered official. Advice for actual medical practice should be obtained from a licensed health care professional.

For further questions or comments: 

The Nishmat Women's Health and Halacha Site is a public service of Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. This project and others like it are made possible by contributions from people like you. If you have benefited from the service, and wish to enable us to help others, click here to donate.


Users of Internet filtering services: This site discusses sensitive subjects that some services filter without visual indication. A page that appears 100% complete might actually be missing critical Jewish-law or medical information. To ensure that you view the pages accurately, ask the filtering service to whitelist all pages under yoatzot.org.


Accessibility Toolbar