Background & aims: The Intrauterine contraceptive device is one of the safe, effective, longtime, and reversible and globally used contraceptive methods. The purpose of this research was to identify the factors associated with discontinuation of intrauterine contraceptive device among women referred to Sananda. health centers. Material & Methods: In this descriptive –analytical study 5 centers were selected among the health centers of Sanandaj using cluster sapling method. A researcher-made

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... tionnaire was used to collect the data related to the women who discontinued using intrauterine contraceptives device during one year. Data was analyzed by chi-square test using SPSS-PC (v.16). Results: The findings revealed that 166 women had removed their IUDs during the study. The most common reason for discontinuation of IUD was the complications (59.04%) of the device and other reasons were desire for pregnancy, concern about its complications, spontaneous expulsion, invisibility of the thread, expired date of use, pregnancy, menopause, husband death, divorce and vasectomy. The most common complications were bleeding (38.77%) , infection (28.57%) , dysmenorrhea (19.39%) and spotting (17.27%). Conclusion : Having at least three children has been recommended in the country. However, regarding the findings of this study whenever more pregnancies are contraindicated, other kinds of IUD such as Progestasert should be available in health centers to offer woman with excessive bleeding. Received: 8 March 2013 Accepted: 8 Jun 2013