Gräfenberg's ring

Gräfenberg's ring is a flexible ring of silk suture, later versions of which were wrapped in silver wire. It was an early IUD, a birth control device. Gräfenberg's ring was the first IUD used by a significant number of women.cite journal | year = 2000 | month = February | title = Evolution and Revolution: The Past, Present, and Future of Contraception | journal = Contraception Online (Baylor College of Medicine) | volume = 10 | issue = 6 | url=http://www.contraceptiononline.org/contrareport/article01.cfm?art=93] The ring was introduced by a German gynecologist called Ernst Gräfenberg in 1928.cite journal |author=Thiery M |title=Intrauterine contraception: from silver ring to intrauterine contraceptive implant |journal=Eur. J. Obstet. Gynecol. Reprod. Biol. |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=145–52 |year=2000 |month=June |pmid=10825633 |doi= |url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0301211500002621] It ceased to be in wide use circa 1939.

Inserting a foreign device into the uterus causes an inflammatory response, which creates a hostile environment for sperm. [cite web | title = Mechanisms of the Contraceptive Action of Hormonal Methods and Intrauterine Devices (IUDs) | work = Family Health International | year = 2006 | url = http://www.fhi.org/en/RH/Pubs/booksReports/methodaction.htm | accessdate = 2006-07-05 ] [cite web | last = Keller | first = Sarah | title = IUDs Block Fertilization | work = Network | publisher = Family Health International | year = Winter 1996, Vol. 16, No. 2 | url = http://www.fhi.org/en/RH/Pubs/Network/v16_2/nt1623.htm | accessdate = 2006-07-05 ] The silver wire used to construct later versions of Gräfenberg's ring was contaminated with copper, which increases this spermicidal effect.

In 1934, Japanese physician Tenrei Ota developed a variation of the Gräfenberg ring that contained a supportive structure in the center. The addition of this central disc lowered the IUD's expulsion rate. However, insertion of these devices caused high rates of infection and were condemned by the medical community. cite web | last = Lynch | first = Catherine M. | title = History of the IUD | work = Contraception Online | publisher = Baylor College of Medicine | url = http://www.contraceptiononline.org/meetings/IUD/lynch/presentation_text.cfm?cme_activityid=47&showmenu=1 | accessdate = 2006-07-09 ] Furthermore, their use and development was stifled by World War II politics: contraception was forbidden in both Nazi Germany and Axis-allied Japan. The Western world did not learn of the work by Gräfenberg and Ota until well after the war ended.

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