Mirena: Issues and Concerns

[nicicas]

When I Had My Mirena IUD Put In I Stopped Getting A Period Altogether. I Have Been Spotting The Past Couple Of Months & I Can No Longer Feel The Strings. Is There Any Reason For Concern? Could It Be Embedded?

[Jettpack]

I was told within the 1st year most women will not have a period anymore. I've only had mine for 2 months, the last period I had lasted 2 weeks, and I've had spotting of different sorts off and on since I've gotten in. I've never been able to feel my strings, the doctor believes they've been pushed into my cervix but it's still in place.
If you go to you GYNO you can have them look for the strings, they could just be pushed up, or behind your cervix. They can do a sonogram to make sure it's still in place and hasn't expelled.

[RazzleDazzle]

I am 28 years old and very healthy. I am 5ft 6 in and weighed 110 pounds before I had Mirena put in August 4th of 2008. It didn't hurt at all being put in. It felt like I was having a pap done. When I got home I felt great. The next day I felt fine. Then for 3 weeks I bled. I was crampy and was barely able to walk. During those 3 weeks all of the symptoms listed below began, and lasted until I took it out in January.

Daily cramps
Daily belly pains
Couldn’t sleep more than 2 hours
Gained over 15 pounds
Dandruff
Hair was falling out
Dry Skin
Itch Skin
Really bad acne on face, neck and back
I smelled maple syrup everyday, all day.
My husband felt the strings when we had sex
Sex was painful
Very moody
I always felt bloated
Headaches
Lower back pain
Some days I wanted sex other days I didn't
My body ached everywhere
Cried a lot
Depressed
Never wanted to leave the house
Didn’t want to work out anymore

The list goes on and on.

I finally pulled it out in January. I had relief as soon as it was out. I had instant relief from the following. Cramps, lower back pain, dandruff, dry skin, itchy skin, headaches, the smell of maple syrup. And of course my husband didn't feel the strings anymore.

I did remove the Mirena myself with my husbands help. Insurance doesn’t cover its removal, and the strings were long enough it was like pulling out a tampon. Quick and easy.


Bottom line Mirena was a huge mistake and I hated every second it was in.

Did anyone else experience any of those symptoms?

[Motherof3Ds]

I have had Mirena in for 3 years. I have had no actual problems with it, it does what it is supposed to and keeps me from getting pregnate. Then, I went looking on some sites because I wanted other options to Mirena before my time ran out (I was in a lot of pain when they insirted it for a few weeks and didn't relish going through that again.) As I started reading up on some of the side effects though, I was really suprised that they described my daily life for the last three years. I always felt weak, tired, mood swings (sometimes these scared me), I had suffured from lower back pain for over a year, cramping and irregular spotting. I had attriputed the irregular spotting to the BC but not the back pain. Then there are the headaches. I am on two different migraine meds (trust me, the meds aren't that bad, especially because they make me loopy) but I read that if you suffer from migrains you shouldn't use Mirena. Who knew? After talking with my husband, we decided to take the Mirena out before my five years are up and have a visectomy. Well, at least he is.
If you can't feel your strings though, you should see your doctor. Mine had told me to come in right away if I couldn't feel them. Fortunatly for me, my husband has no problem feeling them when we have sex so I never had to worry about that.
Even if your symptoms aren't bad, though, think about having to deal with them for five years. I made it three, and I am done. It will be nice to see if removing the IUC helps with my migrains and maybe I'll be able to sleep through the night again. Then again, I do have three kids, so maybe the sleep thing won't work out, but the migrains would be nice.

[MIZZMOWETT]

I have had mireana in place for 3 months now. A first i felt the cramping, and bloating. Every now and then i got spotting. My sencond month with it in i didn't have a period at all. Now i am haveing more regular periods than before. I am not having any problems as of now. Mirena is not for everyone especially if you ever had any kind of health conditions.you should have talked to your doctor and discuss any previous health conditions you may have had. When you have had problems with other conditions, when mirena is put in place it might have brought them back up. Ask you health care provider about any conserns and any any questions . Even if you feel awkward asking them.

[pinklady]

I had the mirena coil fitted 6-7 weeks ago
I had taken lots of pain killers beforehand, and I have quite a high pain threshold so I knew I had nothing to worry about, plus I knew from other people having it, there wasnt much pain in having it fitted.
However this wasn't the case! I screamed the clinic down!! I felt like I was going to collapse from the pain, It felt like I was having my lady parts ripped apart! Then the doctor said she hadn't even put it in yet! & that's when everything went very blurry and I nearly passed out.

Almost immediatly I was having pains on my right side, especially in my right thigh. It felt like a nerve had been hit or something.

Anyway, I suffered cramping pains but it always seemed to be my right side. I knew this cramping was to be expected so I just kept taking painkillers and tried to ignore it.

For the past two weeks I have suffered crippling pain that wakes me up in the night (again always on the right side). It begins with a dull ache and then it feels like I've pulled a muscle as the pain quickly becomes really intense then has died down 30 seconds or so later.

So I had had enough today, as I've spent the past two days in bed unable to move with the pain. I rang up NHS direct & they suggested an infection. I rang the clinic when it opened and managed to speak to a doctor there & she told me it was normal to experiance this level of pain. So I was confused by the two opinions and asked my mum who is a nurse & she knew how much pain I had been in I live with her at the moment.

She suggested it could be a bit of post traumatic stress. Could this be the problem? Has anyone else had or heard of anything like this? It feels silly that this should be the answer afterall I only had the coil fitted but admittedly it was the worst pain I have ever felt & I am dreading having it removed

[kira]

Mirena is a little Tshaped plastic type insert not a coil. Most likely that extreme pain was the clamp they put on the cervix. It got me too. I have a high pain threshold, took more pain killers than recommended, and I was arching my back trying my darn hardest to stay still and not bite through my lip when they put that clamp on.

As for lasting pain I had that too. I went back in and had mine checked when the pain would not go away after 2 weeks and I spent most of that time in bed taking the maximum amount of ibuprofen daily and I don't meant the suggested amount listed on the bottle. Then I started mixing it with otc meds for menstrual cramps that were tylenol based. 3 people checked it... yay I got to lay there for 3 speculums and 3 doctors staring at me... said it looked fine and after palpating my abdomen didn't think it was an infection. However they wouldn't give me painkillers in case something was wrong. I was ready to murder someone at that point. The pain is supposedly normal and everything is fine but I can't have pain killers because pain isn't normal and might mean something is wrong. Finally I got some really low dose hydrocodone (which barely helped) provided I also took a broad spectrum antibiotic (wreaked havoc on my body) and went in for an ultrasound.

A few days later I get an ultrasound. The doctor and med student doing the ultrasound say it looks perfect and oh by the way apparently my ovaries are highly productive and healthy so it's a good thing I'm on birth control cause my reproductive tract really wants to do it's job. A few days after the ultrasound all pain stops. Yay my body finally adjusted! Not.... 2 days after that we have sex and blood comes out when I go to the toilet afterward. I reach up to check the IUD and I can feel the end of it. Within a few hours I can't feel it anymore and I can't feel it the next day. If I hadn't checked right then who knows how long it would have taken for me to notice. Luckily I had an appointment with my regular doctor the next day (had to have the IUD done at a different clinic) and told her. She said it was very odd for an IUD to move in and out like that and it should be fine if the ultrasound looked that good but, and here's the reason I love this doctor, she then said she had learned it was better to listen to the patient than the machines. She checked the IUD, found it wedged in my cervix, and pulled it out. I opted not to have it put back in.

Thus ends my IUD experience and I don't wish it on anyone. Now I have lybrel birth control pills which means I never have my period again so long as I remember to take a little pill every day.

All I can really suggest is you request an ultrasound if your insurance will pay for it. Extreme pain like that can mean the IUD punctured your uterus. It could even have happened during insertion which would account for some of the excessive pain you felt. Although it seems some of us are just far more sensitive down there than others. My uterus obviously takes offense to anything being shoved into it and revolts quite strongly. It took it 3weeks but it accomplished shoving out what everyone said was a perfectly placed IUD.

[njw80]

hey
i am a newbie on here,
i had mine removed this morning after 9 wks of hormonal mad rages and severe depression ,pain in my lower back ,thighs and shoulder blades,not to mention the distorted shaped tummy feeling sick that i am un able to eat and generally not feeling like me at all!the cramping pains altho i could bare were annoying as i felt every day "oh not this again"
and with 3 children to run around after i cannot afford to be ill any day let alone 9wks....my poor family have been to n back!
so i rang my gp and demanded it come out 2d or else!
well i am really glad i did as after she had removed it she asked me if we were going to do a scan to which i replied no,"oh,its just that it wasnt it the right place it was far to low"!!!
omg!!!do these gp's know what they r doing???never again am i going to put a device in me like that ,i am completely stuffed as far as contraception goes,so am waiting to be sterilised now,and will be thankfull to have my heavy periods back,as in the whole 9 wks i have had a week of no bleeding!so yes it is a great contraceptive!!libido????what libido?
i can actually feel that it has been removed as strange as it sounds and my tummy has gone back to normal!it has been only 2 hrs and i can feel my head clearing and feel calmer already and not so anxious and nervous; i have come to the conclusion that my body was just not made to accept any kinda artificial hormone no matter how little.
my gp will of course maintain that it was nothing to do with the coil but i know for a fact it was!
will keep u posted as to how the next few weeks go,but i would say to any ladies out there in a turmoil over it,if ur gut instinct say get it out ,go get it out,

[HWaight2010]

I had a Mirena Coil inserted about 5 weeks ago. Over the last two weeks, I have started to feel nauseous when eating meals, not to the point of being sick but just enough to stop eating. My breasts are sore and I feel like a zombie. Does anyone know whether these will be related to the Coil? Thanks

[kira]

Mirena is a little T shaped device not a coil. All side effects of birth control pills can be side effects of mirena. That includes nausea, sore breasts, spotting, mood swings, and a very long list that you should have been given to read before it was inserted.