Author: Danielle Mazza, Director, SPHERE NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health in Primary Care and Professor and Head of the Department of General Practice, Monash University

Ahead of the government’s response this week to a Senate inquiry into access to reproductive health care in Australia, the government has announced new measures to make it easier to get an intrauterine device, or IUD. Payments to doctors and nurse practitioners to insert and remove these devices will increase. The government will also set up eight centres to train health-care professionals in IUD insertion, and ensure they are skilled and confident. The Coalition has vowed to match this commitment if it wins the federal election. So what are IUDs? And how might these changes impact Australian women? ‘Set and…