Thread: Bleeding after intercourse with an IUD

hiya ladies ive had iud for 1 1/2 years now and my periods have stopped completely which is great, only had minimal pmt. But, last week after sex with my husband maybe 10 mins after i had the most unbearable pain, cramping total agony i couldnt help but cry out, lasted around an hour, took two aspirin and passed out i think! since then i have been bleeding had a very sore abdomen and lost my appetite, really tired and emotional. hate doctors but from the sounds of the posts on here i think seeing someone may be the best option.

Glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. I have had the paragard for exactly a year now, and while the pain and cramping has gotten relatively better, I am recently (within the past few months) experiencing bleeding after sex with my boyfriend-mostly spotting, that lasts for a few days. First off I will say that by relatively better, I mean the pain from my cramps no longer shoots down the front of my legs to the top of my feet. But its still bad, begins about a week before I actually begin bleeding-sharp pains and what I've been told are similar to contractions-Ive never given birth or been pregnant-if it wasn't for Aleve I probably couldn't even work on those days and would have had this thing removed a long time ago-does anyone else experience this kind of pain from this thing??
Anyway, I went to the clinic to get checked out when I started bleeding abnormally and got a pap and all to make sure everything was okay-the girl who worked on me was just out of med school and had no idea what she was doing-lost one of the swabs and couldn't remember if she had done two swipes or not, was looking on the floor for it, came back and told me she "thought" I might have a bacterial infection that is causing the bleeding-I am not taking any kind of antifungal/antibiotic medicine if you just "think" I have an infection-aside from that I have had no bacterial symptoms, pain or smelly discharge-so instead I have been doing teatree douches to try to alleviate the bleeding if it IS caused by bacteria (just a small amount of teatree oil in lukewarm water if anyone is thinking of trying, useful for treating yeast infections or bacterial).
Then I read on another website that bleeding is common, and actually a sign that the IUD is working, because it is causing the uterus to shed cells instead of, well, not.
I am undecided about this whole IUD thing. Realistically, going back to condoms is not an option after an entire year of not using them...and before that we were pretty bad about using them anyway. Hormones aren't an option either, which pretty much leaves us nothing, unless we wanted to try the fertility method-has anyone used this with success? Anyone else have the same IUD problems?? this is a long post, thanks for reading

I have had my iud (paragard) for a month now and i'm still experiencing the bleeding and cramping. pretty much a non-stop period. A week ago i noticed a decrease in my side affects. i didnt need an ibreprofen and i didnt even fill an entire pad..so i felt a little more comfortable having intercourse. So of course, a day after I did, BAM! I feel like I just had my iud put in again with the cramps and bleeding. frustrating as , but im willing to ride it out. going back to the hormones is not an option for me due to my issues with weight gain. I just cant help but feel uneasy about these issues, not to mention the possibility that they will last for MONTHS... thumbs down..

The first couple months were the hardest for me pain-wise. Fortunately, while I can still say I have killer cramps, they HAVE gotten better over time. Have you tried taking anything other than ibuprofen for the pain? I really find Aleve to help much more than ibuprofen, not sure why. I even tried taking a vicodin once and the Aleve still worked better! Hang in there

I have had my Copper IUD for about 15 months now, and I have had a mixed experience, so I wanted to write about it here in case my experience could be helpful to anyone else.

I decided to switch to the IUD after nine years of being on the pill because I hated the way the hormones from the pill made me feel and was ready to try something different. Insertion was momentarily very painful, but the pain was brief, so I was relieved, because I had been very nervous about that. For the first few months I had very very heavy periods - pretty awful - but they gradually got lighter. (They are still heavier and longer than when I was on the pill, but they are not that terrible.)

Painful insertion, heavy periods - all of this I can deal with. What is NOT okay with me is the almost constant spotting and bleeding with sex. It is unlike the spotting I had before the IUD - in fact, I don't even know if you could call it spotting, as it is often very heavy. It is incredibly inconvenient and is negatively affecting my sex life. (My boyfriend has been very tolerant and kind in spite of all the blood, but I feel awful.) If anything, the spotting has gotten worse in the past few months, and I have pretty bad cramping at certain times throughout the month (during ovulation, for one). I would estimate that in addition to the week that I have my period each month (yes, my periods now last a FULL WEEK with the IUD), I am bleeding an additional two weeks total. I feel like it is taking over my life. I have to wash (with bleach) my bedsheets about 3 times a week, which is completely absurd.

I called my OB-GYN a couple of times during the first year because I was concerned that it wasn't getting any better, and she told me that it was normal. I had my yearly check-up at 12 months, and again, she told me that the spotting was normal and that if it really bothered me I could have the IUD removed. I've always liked my doctor, but on this topic, I felt like she wasn't really taking my concerns seriously and wished that she could explain more why this is happening and how common this experience is. That is why I came to this forum.

There are so many things that are great about being off the pill, but I am pretty fed up with all this bleeding. In addition, the strings are very painful for my boyfriend in certain positions, even though I had them trimmed so short that I can no longer check for them. I am thinking very seriously about having the IUD removed. If others have had similar experiences, I would be curious to hear about them. Reading this forum, it's nice to realize that I am not the only one!

I also have the paraguard in for the past 6 mths and I am soooooo fed up with the spotting, sex life is interrupted all the time, I do not have a problem with the string but my gosh the heavy bleeding is crazy, I do not have pains as much anymore its just the spotting, my doctor had told me that it could be upwards to 2yrs before all these instances stop and just regular periods, I am gonna hang in there with it though as it beats the condom with my husband and as a pill user for 9 yrs its time that I moved on from it and I have no interest in going back.

Originally Posted by oblivionista

I have had my Copper IUD for about 15 months now, and I have had a mixed experience, so I wanted to write about it here in case my experience could be helpful to anyone else.

I decided to switch to the IUD after nine years of being on the pill because I hated the way the hormones from the pill made me feel and was ready to try something different. Insertion was momentarily very painful, but the pain was brief, so I was relieved, because I had been very nervous about that. For the first few months I had very very heavy periods - pretty awful - but they gradually got lighter. (They are still heavier and longer than when I was on the pill, but they are not that terrible.)

Painful insertion, heavy periods - all of this I can deal with. What is NOT okay with me is the almost constant spotting and bleeding with sex. It is unlike the spotting I had before the IUD - in fact, I don't even know if you could call it spotting, as it is often very heavy. It is incredibly inconvenient and is negatively affecting my sex life. (My boyfriend has been very tolerant and kind in spite of all the blood, but I feel awful.) If anything, the spotting has gotten worse in the past few months, and I have pretty bad cramping at certain times throughout the month (during ovulation, for one). I would estimate that in addition to the week that I have my period each month (yes, my periods now last a FULL WEEK with the IUD), I am bleeding an additional two weeks total. I feel like it is taking over my life. I have to wash (with bleach) my bedsheets about 3 times a week, which is completely absurd.

I called my OB-GYN a couple of times during the first year because I was concerned that it wasn't getting any better, and she told me that it was normal. I had my yearly check-up at 12 months, and again, she told me that the spotting was normal and that if it really bothered me I could have the IUD removed. I've always liked my doctor, but on this topic, I felt like she wasn't really taking my concerns seriously and wished that she could explain more why this is happening and how common this experience is. That is why I came to this forum.

There are so many things that are great about being off the pill, but I am pretty fed up with all this bleeding. In addition, the strings are very painful for my boyfriend in certain positions, even though I had them trimmed so short that I can no longer check for them. I am thinking very seriously about having the IUD removed. If others have had similar experiences, I would be curious to hear about them. Reading this forum, it's nice to realize that I am not the only one!