Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Dr Melvin's letter.1 I would entirely agree that the approach to regular annual checks for patients using the intrauterine device (IUD) changed in the early years of the new millennium, being frequently advised before then, and generally felt to be unnecessary after that. Literature searching reveals that prior to publication of our study2 there was virtually no evidence to support either approach and that the guidelines and recommendations published were simply that, with no means of substantiating any advice. Hopefully this situation has, at least in part, been rectified.