[maylea_moon]

Hey all, I just have a quick question. For those of you that have sensitivities to most birth control pills (for me it basically feels like i have bad anxiety and PMS whenever i have been on the pill, i've even tried some of the low dose ones) I am wondering if the Mirena IUD has worked for any of you without the icky hormonal side effects. The thought of an IUD seems really great for me but I don't want to go with the copper one because I already have very heavy periods as it is. Anyway, I'd like to hear your experiences.

 

[Danielle283]

I had problems with 2 kinds of pills (ortho tri-cyclen and something else), and the patch. I had the same problems, if not more, with the Mirena. My anxiety (along with other side effects) just got worse and worse the longer I had it in (3.5 years). I finally had it removed about 8 months ago because I hated it so much.

 

[Buzzer Beater]

I had the Mirena for over 4 years without a hitch. I know there are a lot of women posting about bad experiences with IUDs- it just wasn't like that for me. I had never been able to tolerate BCPs for long, and tried many of them. Mirena was the only thing that gave me complete freedom- no periods, no problems, no anything. I wish more people would post about their good experiences. You just never know until you try it- and I guess that's a pretty expensive experiment if you don't like it. Also- I am a big weenie about my cervix/pain/anything down there- and I could never tell it was in there.

 

[Right of Passage]

I did have side effects. It did what all hormonal BC does to me lowered my sex drive and made me break out. The severity of the effects were no where near what I expierence with HBCP (no sex drive, terribly acne, and lots of pregnancy like symptoms)

 

[dmariev]

I am also interested in the Mirena IUD, and have the same questions. But I have one more as well, will it affect breast feeding?

 

[Buzzer Beater]

I don't know about that... I would thouroghly research it, talk to your hcp, etc. When I got my Mirena my obgyn swore to me that the hormones in it were at such small doses that they never left your uterus. I believed her and never had hormonal side effects of any kind. Of course now I have read other stories from women who have had problems. Honestly, I'm not even sure what the hormone is. I went to look on the Mirena site and it is being overhauled at the moment.

 

[missjessicajames]

according to the planned parenthood webpage mirena is a progesterone only birth control and is safe to use while breast feeding (like the mini pill). I don't currently use it but I'm researching it as an option

 

[Areia]

I've had Mirena for about a year and a half now. I love it - I haven't had any side effects and I no longer have my period. Just some light spotting a few times. I felt a some discomfort for a moment when it was inserted, but I didn't experience any pain or cramping. I'd recommend it to anyone.

 

[mrforbes]

I have the Mirena and love it so far. It's also safe for breastfeeding, my lactation consultant approved it. It's way better for me than other BC pills and the nuva ring.

 

[jasper28]

I have had the mirena for a few months and so far, so good. I had terrible reactions to bcp (to the point of insanity...weird heart palpitations, nausea, poor circulation, not to mention headaches, acne and overall meaness. My periods were way too heavy to go without anything. I suffered for two years before finally agreeing to try the mirena. The insertion was fine, my side-effects have been minimal (a little acne and spotting). I have been happy and hope that some of the side effects that I read about don't end up happening.

My midwife is adamant that when you get a mirena, you must take extra B vitamin in order to combat some of the effects of the progesterone. I have been taking my faithfully.

Good luck with your decision --- the only effect that I didn't count on or expect is the fact that having something in there kinda weirds me out on occassion. I had the weird impulse to pull it out for the first week or two. I have now gotten used to the idea that it is there.

 

[Quindin]

I have hormone sensitivity, but was told the Mirena would work well for me since the amount of hormone released was minimal. Nothing coul be further from the truth! It was horrible in every single way! Bleeding that did not stop, total loss of libido, weight gain, depression and severe mood swings. Awful stuff!

 

[park223]

I had the Mirena IUD for 3 years. My husband and I thought we felt something during sex, so stopped until I could get in to have my Dr. take a look and see if the IUD was where it should be. I asked him to please remove it, regardless of where it was (right or wrong), as I didn't want to have any more worries about it. The Dr. couldn't find the threads to remove it there in his office, so told me to reschedule a new appointment in a few days to allow for more time for him to try and get it out with a hook to try and catch the IUD threads on the hook. He prescribed one Valium pill for me to take before this new appointment. He tried 4 times unsuccessfully to get to the threads that had gone back up inside of the Mirena IUD. Now, I needed to go get an ultrasound for him to make sure that the IUD was in fact in the correct place. I did this a few days later, and found that yes - the IUD was where it should be. So, the next step was to schedule an appointment at the hospital to have a D&C and Hysteroscopy so he could see what was going on and remove the IUD while watching the procedure on a monitor screen. My doctor suggested that it would be a good time to have a tubal ligation done in addition to this appointment. We've already had a child and are both 42 and are definitely done having children, so this was a no brainer. I had these two procedures done on Saturday (it's Monday now), and am so glad to know the IUD is out of me and that I don't have to worry about birth control any longer. I was put under for these procedures, and it was much less painful than the appointment with the hook in the office. I'm not bleeding today, and had light bleeding from the removal on the day of surgery and yesterday only. I really did like having the Mirena IUD. I only had light spotting, rather than heavy periods. The spotting would often last for 2 weeks sometimes though, so I never felt I could pin-point the start/end of a period. I don't think I noticed any hormonal imbalances over these 3 years, as others have posted. Still, I'm glad I tried it. I just wanted to point out that this problem with the threads going back inside of the IUD is more common than I knew. Not so fun to have it taken out the way it was for me.

 

[hrw32184]

I wore the Mirena IUD for 4 out of the 5 years. I developed a hormone sensitivity this last year.I've had no periods after the first 6 months. My dr did say that Mirina has like 1/3 of the hormones that the pill has. I loved it until I developed migraines but I do that with pills too. I'm having the ParaGard put in next week. No hormones and up to 10 years on the IUD. My periods were super heavy too so I'm praying it doesn't go back that way. My Dr seems to think it won't since I did wear Mirena for 4 years.