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So about that Mirena…

I had it removed. If I had the stamina to do back flips, I would. I have never been so happy to have a body beginning to function as it is intended to (hello menstrual cycle). But to back up a little bit… in this post I mentioned my suspicion of the Mirena (inserted 3 1/2 years ago) causing my mental health plummet. Never did I imagine that at age 24, I’d find myself feeling trapped at the bottom of the barrel. I won’t get into details or dramatics, but for over a year I felt pretty crappy on most days. And my symptoms started to escalate last Spring. I thought I was losing my mind.

Some common side effects of the Mirena IUD are:
Decreased Focus and Concentration
Substantial Weight Gain
Heart Palpitations
Elevated Anxiety
Decreased Libido
Depression
Irritability
Migraines
Hair Loss
Fatigue
Acne

As if those side effects weren’t enough, the possible Mirena removal side effects  can be even more detrimental to a woman’s health. Drugnews.net offers a variety of information on what can be done if you’ve had severe complications.

I experienced all of the symptoms that have been underlined… so much so that I decided to see a Psychiatrist. It was a very hard thing for me to do. The Psychiatrist prescribed meds pretty quickly, which I appreciated because seeing her was uncomfortable enough. But what bothers me is, what if I really didn’t have a problem and I wanted to abuse the meds? How would she have known? Anyway, I took the “happy pills” out of desperation for all of a week and ditched them because they had me trembling in my own home and made me feel like a sad zombie. I did not want to become dependent on them especially if I didn’t NEED them. I didn’t want to dig myself into a hole that I would not be able to escape from.

Before my whole experience seeing a shrink, I had read Mirena Horror stories as I did with Depo Provera, and I finally decided that the contraption had to go. All of the stories were hitting home. My *new* Ob/Gyn didn’t believe that the Mirena was causing these problems, but she accepted my other reason for wanting to have it removed… I wanted more children. She seemed super nice, but I see she’s the stubborn type. Thousands of women are not struggling from absolutely nothing! After she removed the IUD (it didn’t hurt), she told me that the Mirena contains the same medication as Depo. Seriously? Depo? Had I had that little nugget of info, I wouldn’t have had the Mirena inserted in the first place (by another Gyn). I’ve had such luck with contraceptives, I swear. At this point, I.am.done.

Done.

In a few days, I will be starting a detox to flush away any remnants of hormones. I’m also researching fertility charting. It sounds a little scary, but I have absolutely nothing to lose. I need to be more present with my bodily functions. I’m ready to roll with it, miscalculations and all ;-).

Edited to add:

We’re expecting a baby boy Thanksgiving 2012!

Linking to When Birth Control May Do More Than Just That.

Holly

Wednesday 30th of January 2013

Omg! I literally had just about every symptom on that list! I thought I was.about to lose my mind! I couldn't take it anymore! No joke, I went into the bathroom and washed my hands with antibacterial soap and I pulled that lil sucker out of there myself! And let me tell you. Its only been a couple hours and I already feel 10x better! Its like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders! Im on my way to becoming myself again. Although I didn't have mine in as long as you, it was long overdue.

Karla Archer

Wednesday 28th of November 2012

I finally wrote about my experience. Mine has many been chronic pain. I didn't put it all together until the last couple of months, but I've been experiencing chronic pain in my arms, hands, fingers, shoulders and neck for the last 2.5 years.

I'm having mine removed asap.

http://www.karlaarcher.com/when-birth-control-may-do-more-than-just-that/

Melanie350

Wednesday 14th of November 2012

Hi I got the Mirena inserted in January this year. At first I thought it was fabulous - my body responded well to it in the fact that I didn't spot at all and I wasn't worrying about becoming pregnant as I didn't have to think about taking a pill anymore. However, unfortunately I hadn't escaped the down sides of this little device...

About three months into it, I developed terribly painful breasts. And I'm not talking the kind of sore you might get throughout your cycle when they become tender. I'm talking the actual nipples feeling like they had bee stings on them and a strange sensation which was highly uncomfortable and came and went throughout the day and night. I had this for a month straight and it got so painful that I dreaded the thought of having a shower as the pain became unbearable. I asked my gyne what she thought and she said that breast pain could happen and to take Evening Primrose to settle it or breast feeding pills. Well, considering I've never had children I thought that insane to take medication for something I wasn't even doing!!! So, I tried to perservere and was taking EPO like 5x a day. The breast pain improved a bit, however then another side effect - limp, greasy hair. I have always had fine hair, but not greasy. I would wash it and blow dry it and it would look like it was still slightly wet or VERY greasy. It was awful and had lost it's normal shine and healthy feel. I also noticed my hair seemed thinner and a couple of chunks had fallen out, particularly on the side. I went to get my hair done and when my hair dresser saw it, who is fantastic, she couldn't believe the different poor condition it was in, so we flagged it altogether! I changed shampoo numerous times and spent a lot on effective products, but nothing worked.

Then came the next side effect - acne. I felt very insecure about this as my skin has always been relatively clear and then I was faced with these big, extremely painful spots under the skin. They felt like ulcers and they wouldn't clear - they were like wee volcanoes just waiting and once one cleared, the next would rear its head. I started feeling very shitty and just generally horrible as had not had problems with skin or hair before. It was like each time my body wanted to bleed and couldn't, it would try to release in other ways.

The other things I experienced was excessive anxiety and moods - my partner and I were really challenged with this and it almost all ended because of the paranoia I developed and the crazy moods that went with this. My bf wanted me to get the thing removed as it was taking its toll on us. I also did feel very tired a lot.

The final straw was when I thought I'd developed cystitis. This seemed a bit unusual as I never get bladder infections. After a couple of days of constant peeing and weird feeling and some bladder ache/pain, I went to the doctor. I took antibiotics but nothing improved. This weird tingly feeling remained for two weeks and it was like every time there was a drop of pee in me it bothered me so much that I had to pee all the time very regularly. In the end I realised it was a strange feeling similar to that of my breasts so finally I turned up at my gyne's practice and said it had to be removed. They were very good and removed it a few minutes later. I felt relieved as soon as it was removed. I am now back on the combined pill and had no problem having my first menstral bleed this year.

I feel better within myself, my anxiety has calmed dramatically, my relationship is a world better, I have more energy, that awful, painful, very strange tingly breast and bladder pain has gone, my hair is so much better and my skin is amazing. I also stopped getting bad tension headaches which I noticed I developed much more when I had the Mirena.

I do not want to post on here to be really negative about this form of contraception. However, if you are deciding to use this form, I would just read up on it first before you just make a decision like I did. My mum had it and it worked fine for her so I thought it would be okay for me too. Turns out it wasn't. However, I am 26 and have not had children and some people do say that it does not suit people who have not had children. I also had it put in under some local anesthetic as I have a sensitive cervix and have not given birth. This was very expensive, however I wasn't to know it would not be suitable for me personally. I do know of a few other girls my age who love it so I am not going to completely bag this at all.

I would say just read up on it and think hard about it before you make a decision. I don't think any contraception method is without some side effects or perfect, although the Mirena did sound a bit too good to be true with no periods etc!

Anyway I wish you the very best of luck if you do decide to go for this

Mel :)

Szilvia

Monday 5th of November 2012

Hi Sheena, I am so happy to find your blog, especially discussing mirena side effects.

I have had it for 3,5 years now, and will go in the evening to get it removed. I was looking for some stuff on the net to convince my doctor too that maybe my suspicion was more than just a bad feeling about mirena. I am from Hungary, and I think the experiences of using mirena cannot be compared to the experiences in the USA, as we dont have had it here for so long, and the price is rather expensive for an average salary so there are not so many "users" of mirena, I guess.

With your post and the comments together I am more convinced than ever that I have to do it! I just hope that all those problems that I have now will stop or at least fade and will be forgotten soon.

Thanks for your post, I know now that I am not crazy.:-) (sorry for the mistakes, my English is not the best)

stephanie

Thursday 25th of October 2012

I can't believe this thing. I had my mirena in 4 years exactly. That whole time I did not notice much as far as side effects though. Not at the time, anyhow. Looking back on it now, especially since ive had it removed, it did make my libido go to zilch. It did up my irritabiliity, zap my motivation, make me feel generally like crap and not like myself. I know this now, because since having it removed i've gone back to "normal". I forgot what normal felt like, that messed up state became my new normal..

The thing that caught my attention was the panic attacks. The day after my 26th birthday, at 11pm I went upstairs to go to bed, wasnt tired but shouldve been at that time, you know? I get up there, lay down, and my heart starts pounding and racing in my chest. it got worse and worse very quickly and i went downstairs to talk to by fiance, thinking itd calm me down but to no avail. of course since this was my first panic attack ever it was my worst, because it totally freaked me out which added to the problem im sure but.. i called 911 they got to my house after 20 minutes.. longest 20 minutes of my life!! and treated me like i was having a heart attack, made me eat aspirin my BP was 185/115.. after a few hours in the ER it seemed to just fade away. They did nothing for me there but give me some Pepcid thinking it was Acid or something? and sent me home w/no explanation.

Well long story short this started occuring more and more frequently. It got to the point where it happened nearly daily. I had maybe one good week a month.. it got its worst about a week before my period were to come, should i have had periods anyhow. i usually didnt with the iud.. but yeah they were absolutely HORRIBLE!! no one knows how scary a full blown panic attack is until you experience it. I got used to it after a while, found ways to cope.. I would lay in bed for hours and play mario on a gameboy to take my mind off of it , stuff like that.. i often woke up from sleep with panic attacks.. every time i got in the car.. the ones while driving were the worst!! i got some xanax from a few various people, they helped temporarily but as soon as they wore off the prob. came back. this was the most miserable I had ever been in my whole entire life, and let me tell you I have been through worse stuff, situation wise. I had no real life "problems" going on, this felt purely physical. I suggested it to my family doctor and obgyn, they basically told me i was silly, it doesnt even reach the bloodstream. I went to a cardiologist because I thought I had some underlying heart problem. The palpitations and pounding and irregularity were insane. And I am only 26! My heart checked out structurally fine after ultrasounds, got no answers from the cardio doc either. It wasnt until I researched this myself online and found that hundreds, if not thousands of other ladies had the SAME EXACT thing happen to them!! i almost cried when i found out. I immediately scheduled an appt. to have that beast removed, though my obgyn is so booked always, I had to wait THREE months. the ER / hospital would not do it for me, i was tempted to just yank the thing myself but refrained. haha well I got it removed Aug. 13th, just over two months ago and the difference is AMAZING!! I feel absolutely back to normal. My libido is veryvery slowly creeping back.. the panic attacks kind of waned down, occuring less frequently and then stopping completely perhaps a month ago or more.. all the badness just went away slowly and gradually, I can only suppose with the slow and gradual removal of the hormones from my system. I still get a random heart palp. here and there, especially when im ovulating i believe, but oh my god. it is so much better. and the breast pain, yea i also read this thing knowingly causes breast cancer?? I am so thankful to god or whomever that I educated myself and got that thing out!! no one helped me in the medical profession, I am now weary of all of them!! we know our bodies best!! I do not know any other explanation as to why this would have happened to me. I do not think there are any other factors in my case. it is amazing. amazingly creepy!! a few weeks ago I told my Family doc about how i removed it and hes like vhaaat? why? i told him i just wanted to.. I said I had some Pills I was going to take. which i did get from my obgyn but screw those!! I do not want to take hormonal BC ever after all of this!! haha but after that he tried to tell me about the Depo shot, and "Implanon".. a tiny thing they put IN YOUR ARM that releases hormones. sounds like an iud on crack to me, i could only laugh about that one. I dont know if my situation applies to everyone, I think every woman is different and that is the precise problem with this thing. I do not believe it has been studied enough or something. And maybe not everyone will feel relief as fast as i did after removal, but my goodness if youre having the symptoms i had, its worth a try. I read alot of people saying itd get worse before it got better.. i had none of that. I had two bad panic attacks afterwards then it was done, i was better.

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