History
The hormonal IUD came into existence following the creation of the copper IUD in the 1960s and 1970s. Dr. Antonio Scommenga, working at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, discovered that administering progesterone inside the uterus could have contraceptive benefits. With knowledge of Scommegna's work, a Finnish doctor, Jouri Valter Tapani Luukkainen, created the 'T'-shaped IUD that released progesterone, marketed as the Progestasert System. This IUD had a short, 1-year lifespan and never achieved widespread popularity. Following this relative lack of success, Dr. Luukkainen replaced the progesterone with the hormone levonorgestrel to be released over a 5-year period, creating what is now the commercial device, Mirena.
Read more about this topic: IUD With Progestogen
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