"The history of the intrauterine device is remarkably short and its survival has been jeopardized several times from the beginning when Gräfenberg introduced the intrauterine ring in 1928, and later when product liability claims in the USA forced companies to withdraw the IUD from the market. However, a revival is happening, and one of the withdrawn copper IUDs has been re-introduced in the USA. In the 1980s, pessimism about the future of the IUD was based on the fact that there are still two major imperfections inherent in intrauterine contraception: its lack of protection against both 'gyne' and sexually transmitted disease."