You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 50, Issue 1
  • Contraceptive efficacy and global licensing of 52 mg levonorgestrel intrauterine devices: does a Mirena last longer in New York than York?

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Editorial
Contraceptive efficacy and global licensing of 52 mg levonorgestrel intrauterine devices: does a Mirena last longer in New York than York?
  1. Zachary Nash1,2,
  2. Annette Thwaites2,3
  1. 1 Reproductive Medicine Unit, University College London Hospital, London, UK
  2. 2 EGA Institute for Women's Health, University College London, London, UK
  3. 3 Sexual and Reproductive Health, King’s College Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Zachary Nash, Department of Gynaecology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK; z.nash{at}ucl.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsrh-2023-201937

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    There is significant discrepancy between licensed durations for contraceptive efficacy of 52 mg levonorgestrel intrauterine devices (LNG-IUDs) across different countries and between UK licences and national recommendations (table 1). This is confusing and unhelpful for both clinicians and users.

    View this table:
    • In this window
    • In a new window
    Table 1

    Licensed durations for contraceptive efficacy of 52 mg levonorgestrel intrauterine devices

    What is the discrepancy?

    The 52 mg LNG-IUD is a highly effective, long-acting reversible method of contraception (LARC) offering additional therapeutic benefits to those with heavy menstrual bleeding or requiring endometrial protection as part of a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) regimen. Since the introduction of the Mirena® LNG-IUD 30 years ago,1 LNG-IUDs are now available in a variety of forms with different inserters, frame sizes, levonorgestrel (LNG) content and release rates.2

    The Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) intrauterine contraception guideline, published in March 2023, highlights that 52 mg LNG-IUDs are currently licensed in the UK for contraception for 5 years, Mirena®, or 6 years, Levosert®, two-handed device, and Benilexa®, one-handed device (marketed as Liletta® in the USA and Levosert® in some European countries) in women under the age of 45 years.2 During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FSRH temporarily recommended extended Mirena® contraceptive use to 6 years,3 4 and this change has been made …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors ZN and AT contributed equally to the conception and writing of this article.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.