copper IUD?

[veggiemomma]

Do or have any of you gals used one of these? My ds is 15 months old, and was concieved while I was on the pill. My dd is 6 weeks old and was concieved on depo. I am looking for a more "mechanical" as opposed to hormonal means of bc, but have a history of pretty crampy periods and am wondering how much the copper iud increases cramping.

[kater07]

I wanted the copper IUD until my GYN, who I trust very much, told me that the likelihood of becoming pregnant and miscarrying multiple times is far greater on the copper than the Mirena. She said that the minute amounts of hormones shouldn't change my cycle or be harmful to breastfeeding. I have only come across 1 person who had BFing issues.

With paragaurd, your period is also likely to become heavier and more painful and with Mirena, it might become lighter than normal.

That's how I chose which one to use. Now, I just need to find out how long I can expect this spotting to last. I got it on June 29 on CD4 and am still spotting.

[Parthenia]

I have a paragard. I have not had a period yet, I'm 5 months postpartum and breastfeeding.
I was advised not to get a Mirena while breastfeeding because of the hormones. The CNM who gave it to me said the chance of getting pregnant with an IUD is there, but it's slim.
I did not want to use hormonal birth control because I didn't want the extra hormones, breastfeeding or not. I have heavy periods when I have them, and was not terribly concerned about them. You may get a few heavy periods, but then they taper off, according to 2 friends who have paragards.
I'm happy with it so far. We were using a diaphragm for a few years until it got old. For 2 years before Ingrid came along, I knew when I ovulated and we planned accordingly. NOT nfp, or fertility awareness. Basically when I felt mittelschmerz coming on we didn't have. But one month I didn't get mittelschmerz, or I didn't notice it, and and along came

[sistermama]

I had a copper IUD before conceiving dc#1, and I really liked it. I am definitely going to have another put in. I had increased cramping the first 2-3 months, but after that my body adjusted and went back to normal. After years of condoms or bc pills, it was liberating not to have to think about birth control.

[Undercover Hippie]

I had a copper IUD for nearly 2 years in between my 2 kids. I didn't notice much extra cramping and my periods were pretty normal, but I did have a lot of spotting in between periods and it did not resolve over time. I was still pretty happy with the IUD though. It is certainly easy and I like staying away from the hormones.

I will say, the spotting made me paranoid about pregnancy (I'm always paranoid no matter what b/c we use :LOL) and I ended up charting too just so I could be "sure" that each cycle really ended and there wasn't an undetected PG. When I was charting I saw that there were times we DTD very close to O and we never wound up PG, so I'd be less worried about that possibility now. I like charting alone as b/c though, so I didn't get another IUD.