CHANGE: Americans Get Reacquainted With IUDs. “After decades of sloppy research, bad publicity, lawsuits and widespread fears of health hazards, the intrauterine device is making a major comeback in the United States. . . . Use of IUDs declined drastically in the 1970s and 1980s when one device, the Dalkon Shield, was linked to severe infections. Poorly designed studies blamed all IUDs for infections that damaged a woman’s tubes and caused infertility. The Dalkon Shield was taken off the market, but later studies that were better designed found that, all other factors being equal, there were no more cases of pelvic inflammatory disease among IUD users than occurred in nonusers.”