BACKGROUND: The Intrauterine contraceptive device has been shown to be an effective form of long acting reversible contraception. Despite this however, its uptake in Nigeria has not reached the optimum level. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the rate, pattern of uptake and reasons for discontinuation of use of the intrauterine contraceptive device at the University of Abuja Teaching hospital, Abuja. MATERIALS AND METHOD: A retrospective study of record cards of all the women who attended the family planning clinic between January 2007 and December 2016. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, acceptance rate, discontinuation rate and reasons for discontinuation of the IUD were extracted. RESULTS: Out of 3251 acceptors of various family planning methods, there were 1241 acceptors of IUD within the study period, giving an IUD acceptance rate of 38.2%. The contraceptive prevalence rate in relation to the number of deliveries (22,955) within the study period was 14.2%. Overall, IUD was the commonest form of contraceptive used (38.2%). The most frequent users of the IUD were women aged 35 years and above (43.5%), while the least users, (0.3%) were the teenagers. Acceptance rate of IUD was highest amongst women who were Para 4 (27.4%) and most of the women (99%) were married. The IUD was the most commonly used contraceptive in the first 5 years with more than 50% of women using the method by the third year. It subsequently became the second most commonly used contraceptive after the subdermal implant in the last 5 years. The average discontinuation rate was 12.1% and the commonest reason was the desire to get pregnancy 55(36.7%) women. The mean duration of use of IUDs in this study was 2.9+/- 1.6 years. A pearl index of 0.02 was recorded. CONCLUSION: The contraception prevalence rate is low in our center however, the IUD is among the most common methodsutilized by the clients. It is effective and has a low discontinuation rate.
