Women are removing their own long-acting reversible contraception devices and sharing their experiences on social media platform YouTube, a novel US study reveals.

The videos reflect a growing trend towards healthcare autonomy, say researchers from the University of Texas in Austin.

The women framed removal as a simple process, commenting that a doctor would “do the exact same thing” and that “they don’t do anything special”, the researchers found.

For the study, the sociologists analysed 58 videos of women describing how and why they removed their devices, of which 48 were IUDs or Mirena and 10 were Implanon implants.