Mirena IUD

Does anyone here have an iud?

Yep I do. Sent me into a 7 month mixed episode, constant pain and bleeding. I still get pain now but not as much bleeding and my PMDD is practically stable.

We're hoping it will stabilize my PCOS symptoms and also my body is just not responding to bc pills. Maybe the consistent hormone level will help. Im on pills right now and in pain and irregular bleeding.

I got one a about a month ago and had spotting and cramps for a couple weeks. Now I am about to get my period and had cramps but only spotting again.

I have this IUD in.

It was painful as all hell when it was inserted, something that made me think of how childbirth must feel, only maybe 1000 less painful, as it was only a second or two as they opened my cervix up to insert the Mirena.

I noticed this strange darkish red-brown discharge right from day one. It lasted, being almost constant, for a month or two, then it appeared when my normal period would have appeared, then stopped a month or two after that. I asked my OB/GYN about it and he said it was just the uterine lining being dry and shriveled by the hormones in the Mirena (that's what it does, it prevents the Uterus from creating an adequit lining for the zygote to embed in, thus preventing pregnancy), and shedding off as it normally would every month.

Now I have no signs of getting my period at all, which I enjoy immensely as last period before I had the IUD put in was so painful, I was awaken by the severe cramps from a dead sleep.

I noticed maybe a minor gain in weight, and a little extra moodiness as my body got used to the hormones. But now I barely even notice it's in, often forgetting about it altogether for weeks at a time.

There have been some problems with it adhering to the uterine wall in some women, and even penetrating and exiting the uterus altogether and floating freely in the abdomen, but those are supposedly very rare occurrences.

The only adverse effect, other than the slight weight gain and mild moodiness, was a strange inability to consume cheese. I'm talking about actual cheese and not mere artificial cheese flavored product. This strange "aversion" as my sis in law calls it, began almost right after I got the Mirena inserted, and has progressed to the point where the mere sight and smell of some cheeses will cause me to go into a fit of heaving.

I've been thinking about getting one of these but I was wondering if it made sex more painful (as in making the whole vulva area more sensitive like other BC seem to)? And does anyone know how many other forms of birth control you need to use with it? And if a guy were to ejaculate inside of you (without a condom) with this in, would you still need the morning after pill? Probably a dumb question, but I had next to no sex education growing up and what doctors/nurses say contradicts what's in the info packets for the birth control. I don't know who to trust and absolutely can't get pregnant and it's unrealistic to imagine me being in a relationship and never having his penis nowhere near my vagina for years when we both have high sex drives.

And if you don't get a period, how do you know you're NOT pregnant? Am I going to have to take regular pregnancy tests?

I did for awhile for medical reasons but it was removed when it didn't to what my obgyn hoped; relatively painless but it really negatively impacted my moods and depression

Hope you have a good experience with it!

Well, when my period stopped, I was concerned about pregnancy, depsite the use of a condom by my ex. However, after taking a pregnancy test and it coming back negative, and us break up shortly before I took that test, I put any of those thoughts to rest. If you find your periods dissapear altogether on the Mirena, then I recommend at least getting a pregnancy test or two just for back up, in case you start to suspect it.

Signs of pregnancy can be confused with symptoms that the Mirena can bring on, so it can be very confusing. These include tender, sometimes enlarged breasts, random bouts of nausea (not necessarily limited to the morning), frequent urination, and/or increased appetite, sometimes with unusual cravings.

My take on this, though I've never been pregnant, so I can't actually verify it, is that if you're truly going through pregnancy, and are in tune with your body, you'll somehow feel that you're pregnant. Then again, a very rare occurrence of being pregnant and not knowing until you've gone into labor can happen, but that is exceedingly rare so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

I don't know about the vulva being more sensitive, but some guys have been known to notice the tips of the wires (they sort of protrude out of the cervix and, in my case, wrapped around it), while they are inside, as in they feel it somehow during sex. However, my ex never complained about it (whether or not his wearing a condom had any factor in the situation is unclear though). Either he never noticed, or was too polite to say anything.

Besides, sex as enjoyable as sex can be, I suppose. So I had no complaints and neither did he. Since he wore a condom, we felt it was safe enough for him to ejaculate inside of me, but the chance of conception without the use of a condom, while the Mirena is in place is like, .05 percent, or something like that.

It has been known to happen, but as I said before, the Mirena emitts a bunch of hormones that prevent the uterus from forming a lining for any fertilized eggs to take root on. Because of this, the fertilized egg has a higher chance of implanting itself in the fallopian tubes, than without the Minera, though the chance is still very minute.

If such a thing occurs, then you'll need to have the whole embryo removed as there is no way the Fallopian tube can accommodate a pregnancy. But like I said, the chances of this happening are very minute.

One could take the morning after pill if they feel that they need the extra security in preventing pregnancy, if there was unprotected ejaculation within the vagina. However, I personally try to only use two types of contraceptives at one time. It's my personal preference as I believe two "layers" of protection is plenty.

If you have any questions dealing with the number of birth controls you can use at one time, and their combined effectiveness, I'm sure your OB/GYN can answer them. I surely can't as I've only used two at one time and it was enough for me and my ex.

I am hoping it can help with my PCOS issues and not affect my moods. BUT Im pretty convinced the bc pills are messing with me bad. Hopefully this might help by keeping the hormone levels even. My body just doesn't respond to bc pills!

I had a paraguard for 10 years, now I have Mirena.

I got the paraguard 6 weeks after I had my daughter, I remember being able to feel it (it didn't hurt, just felt like a little hard poky thing) for a few days. My periods were a little heavier then they were before, but that was the only side effect I had.

The insurance we had last year wasn't accepted by anyone who did paraguard (apparently not many women in this area use it) so I got mirena instead. Insertion hurt just a little, I had really mild cramping for about 45 minutes, and that was it for pain. I've had it for about four months now and had mild spotting (pretty much just a little when I went to the bathroom) until around two weeks ago. I had a normal period the first month, it got lighter until last month it was just two days of heavy spotting and it seems to have stopped now completely, I had a couple pms days but no bleeding my last cycle. And it has really hyped up my libedo, which I wasn't expecting, just about everything I've ever taken (including combined oral birth control) kills it.

It's made me a little more sensitive all over, and I seem a bit more prone to bursting into tears or going super nostalgic over movies or tv...but that could also just be because I'm off of (a series of the wrong) psych meds for the first time in 5 years and have all my emotions back.

If you know you're sensitive to (fake) hormones and don't already have a heavy period, paraguard is probably the better choice, and it's good for 10-12 years.

-Puppy