Intrauterine device
Dispositivo intrauterino
- Date
- 1909 (Richter) / 1929 (anillo de Gräfenberg) · confidence high
- Place
- Berlin, Germany
- Credited to
- Ernst Gräfenberg, building on an earlier design by Richard Richter
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Gräfenberg perfected the first practical intrauterine device, a ring of silver filaments that remained effective inside the uterus, improving on Richter's 1909 design; his work was suppressed under Nazi rule.
Gräfenberg's design was suppressed by the Nazi regime, which persecuted the physician himself for his Jewish origin.
What it led to
- Modern T-shaped copper intrauterine contraceptives
- Expansion of long-acting reversible birth-control options