Sex & Romance
LoveKiss
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Hormone vs. Copper IUD
SO and I are uber paranoid about accidentally getting pregnant. So paranoid that I am on the pill AND we use condoms every time. While we are both almost certain that we don't want any more kids at all, neither of us are ready for a permanent solution. So I'm considering swtiching from the pill to an IUD to reduce the I'm-a-flake margin of error inherent in the pill. For those with either kind of IUD, what has your experience been with it? I have hormonal acne, so I'm a bit leery of the hormone version. At the same time, I have a very irregular cycle, so I'm leery of going off the hormones. I would love to hear from those who have BTDT with an IUD. TIA!
Note: Depo wreaked havoc on my body. I've never tried Implanon or the ring.
Re: Hormone vs. Copper IUD
The hormonal IUD has a very lose dose of hormones, and they are localized to the uterus, so side effects from them tend to be minimal. I have the non-hormonal one now, and I love it, but it has made my periods heavier and when it's expired in a few more years, I'll try the hormonal one (I also hate hormonal birth control, and hated pills).
The non-hormonal one is called Paragard, and more info can be found at www.paragard.com. I'd definitely do some online research into these before deciding.
I have Paragard and love it. I don't have to think about it. My periods just started back up after having DS and the first one was really heavy but the second was just a normal period.
I had the Mirena (hormonal) for a couple of months. I HATED it! I bled constantly. The doctor said that I should have break through bleeding for a couple months. That's not what I had. I bled heavily for a week, moderate for 2 weeks, and back to heavy again. I had horrible back pains and headaches as well. The bloating was out of control.
In the two months that I had the IUD, I gained 30lbs. I lost all of my baby weight within the first week of having DS. I maintained that weight for more than 2 months when I had the IUD placed. By the time I had it removed, I was heavier than I was when I was pregnant. I was still eating normally and exercising, but the weight kept coming. The OB told me when I had it placed that there were not real side effects to worry about. After I had it removed, she said that my situation was a side effect, but a rare one. In all, it was one of the worst mistakes that I made. It took me more than a year to get the weight off, even with low calorie diets and lots of exercise.
I have the coppper IUD, and I do, 99% of the time, love it.
However, I was at an interview today, and bleed through my tampon in an hour, which is SUPER annoying. Honestly though, that doesn't happen that often. My periods are heavy, but generally under 7 days. Being off hormones (I just came off the nuva ring about 6 months ago) has kind of stunk, my face looks like a teenager's whenever my period comes around. (but it is getting much, MUCH better than it was the first 3 months).
I wouldn't trade my IUD for any other contraception though. I haven't had to worry about vacations and buying or bringing birth control for 6 months.
It's been a great peace of mind. They both have their detractors, some people have bad reactions to Mirena, others hate the heavy periods of Paragard, but they are both great options to look into.
I've had the Paragard since 2006. Before that I used oral contraception for many years and then nothing for a while. When I'm not on any form of contraception, my periods usually last 3 days, very light, no cramps. With the Paragard, they're about 5-6 days, much heavier for days 2-4, and cramps 2 days before my period starts and then again the first few hours of day 1. So considerably heavier than before, but not that much heavier than "normal".
It did take my body a long time to get used to the IUD - for the first 2 years, I had terrible cramps and I had to take OTC painkillers (mainly Aleve). About 2 years in, that started to decline to where now I don't take any painkillers for cramps, instead I just use the cramps as a reminder that I'll be getting my period soon and actually find them useful for that purpose since I never keep track.
I had some problems with oral contraception and that influenced my decision to choose Paragard - also I did not like the possibility of not having a period at all (a risk with Mirena) and I like that Paragard is good for 10 years (actually 12, although they only tell you 10 I think).
If I had the chance to do it again, I would *definitely* get Paragard again, but the first 2 years were difficult (not to mention insertion *shudder*). It's very effective and I really like the fact that I know I'm not getting any hormones, even if the Mirena's hormones are localized and low-dose. It just gives me more peace of mind since I had some hormonal issues in my past. (Oral contraception never helped my skin; my skin is actually clearer since I got the Paragard than it ever was before.)
Ditto to mgeib13. I love my Mierna. There is a chance your body won't like it, but there is that chance with ANY Rx medicine, EVER! Talk to your doctor if you have concerns.
I posted earlier but I remembered a few other things I wanted to mention:
I got my Paragard in the US where it's not a very common method of contraception. My gynecologist wasn't able to insert it (not all gynecologists will do it) so she sent me to a family planning clinic. They told me that they would do it, but I had to have my period on the day of insertion; I was supposed to call them when I got my period. Since my periods only lasted 1-3 days, they never had an appointment available. This went on for 3 months. I ended up moving to another state before they were able to see me. In my new state, I got an appointment at a gynecology group practice. They called me the day before to ask some general questions, including how many children I had and how long I had been married (the first could have been relevant; the second was certainly not!!) and when I told them I had no children and was unmarried, they said it was against their policy to do a Paragard in those circumstances. So then I found another family planning clinic and they gave me a cervical dilator instead of insisting that I have it inserted during my period. It was done on a day that I did not have my period and it was painful but it was successful.
My point is... be prepared to fight for your Paragard... I sure had to!
Good luck! I hope they will be able to give you what is best for you there. I used to see a doctor in a Catholic hospital and she was able to write me a prescription for oral contraceptives but only because she wrote on my chart that it was for controlling my irregular periods, and I was not able to have the prescription filled at the pharmacy that was associated with the hospital. So I would not be surprised if they would not be able to give you something that is only used for contraception - but I have no idea, of course, as every hospital is different.
As far as the pain - this is just my personal experience: I believe that it is supposed to hurt less if you have your period when it is inserted, as that opens the cervix a little. I didn't have my period on that day, but I was given a cervical dilator (I think the drug they gave me is usually used for stomach ulcers? anyway the drug did cause me some short sharp pains in my ... internal reproductive area, I can't be more specific. I guess it was my cervix though.
Then the actual insertion, at least of the copper (Paragard) IUD is sort of a double process: first they put a "sound" which I can only describe as a sort of dipstick that measures the depth of your uterus. That hurts about 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, and lasts about 10 seconds. Then they take that out and put the IUD in. That hurts a lot more - I guess somewhere around 8.5 on a scale of 10 - it's a very acute, sharp pain, which makes sense, because you are basically being stabbed with a sharp stick. I ended up gripping the sides of the bed and arching my back and I did cry out a few times from the pain (which I have never done in my life before in a medical context). That lasts about 20 seconds. When that is over, though, there wasn't anymore acute pain afterwards. It did hurt/ache after for about 20 minutes pretty badly, but not so bad that I couldn't walk or sit (I got up immediately after the insertion and left the clinic and sat in the car and while I remember being dazed from the experience I was not crying or anything). After about 2 hours, it's just really bad menstrual cramp type pain, which in my case lasted about a week, and tapered off. I started bleeding about 2 hours after insertion.
I don't actually remember much more than that, except that there were a few times when my uterus contracted and it was very painful, like I had to bite down on something / hold onto something tightly, and I did think to myself "maybe I should go to the ER" but I didn't (they hadn't warned me about that - I read about it online and decided not to go to the ER after all, which was a really good thing, because I was uninsured at the time!).
About 2 weeks after insertion, I didn't have any more of those contractions until just before my periods. The first 6 months that I had the IUD, I had bad uterine pain in the two days before my periods would start but I was able to control it with over the counter painkillers like 2 Aleve every 4 hours. I never missed work because of anything related to the IUD.
By the way I have a very low tolerance for pain. The clinician who inserted my IUD told me that some people do lose consciousness during the procedure, however I never felt like I might pass out at all.
I absolutely adore my Mirena! My period is totally gone, I've lost the old BC weight that I gained, I don't have mood swings anymore, and I have my sex drive back. I also love that we don't need condoms anymore and I don't have to worry every morning about remembering to take a pill.
I defintely reccomend it.
Maybe try NuvaRing first?
I was on it for almost 5years and loved it. Now, I have Mirena-only because I wanted a longer term solution.
I did have some bleeding the first few weeks on Mirena but I havent hed a period in almost 7 months.