Women doctors choose IUDs for themselves

Women healthcare providers have revealed their birth-control weapon of choice, and it’s not a tiny white pill.

According to a new study published in Contraception, a striking percentage of women’s health providers who take birth control use a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) method like an intrauterine device or contraceptive implant. Doctor knows best, right?

For the report, researchers from Planned Parenthood surveyed 500 female women’s health providers between the ages of 25 and 44. Of the 67 percent that were using contraception, 42 percent were using IUDs or a contraceptive implant—compared to only 12 percent of women in the general population.

Contraceptive implants are considered the most effective form of reversible birth control, since human error is removed from the equation: You can forget to take a pill, but you can’t forget to use that thing chilling out in your uterus. They’re currently the third most popular method among women aged 25 and 44, after the pill (19 percent) and condom (13 percent)—but use has greatly increased over the past few years.