Mirena - good, bad or indifferent???

[BrightSparkles]

I have heard of this but not sure of its pros/cons..whats people experiences? Do you like it why/why not??
TIA xx

[saslia]

Hated it
constant bleeding/spotting/cramping
skin went crazy
mood swings
Had it out when DH finally organised his little chop!!


But others like it - maybe try it and see if it works for you

[widdly]

I have just bought mine from the chemist and am having it inserted on Tuesday. I will give you a little rundown of my contraception woes.

I have tried SO many different types of pill, but I always end up with yucky side effects, mood swings, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, sore boobs etc. So I saw my new awesome dr last month and he gave me a new pill to try called Yaz, which has lower doses of hormones. After a month on this new pill I went back to my dr today and explained to him how crazy it has made me. I have never been this moody ad angry in my life ever. He has come to the conclusion that oestrogen sends me crazy. My last go at contraception is now the Mirena which is only Progesteron, no oestrogen. He sayd because I was such a serene calm happy person from the beginning of pregnancy til my body stopped producing milk, that the Mirena should be wonderful for me. During pregnancy and breastfeeding your body produces Progesteron, it seems that Progesteron and me are a great match, hence Mirena should be perfect.

My dr did say that for most women pregnancy and breastfeeding sends them a little batty and they do better with less progesteron and more oestrogen, so I guess that explains why a lot of women hate the Mirena.

Hope that all helped you a bit in understanding how Mirena works. I will post a thread in a few months time and let every one know how my experiene with Mirena is going

[BrightSparkles]

I have just bought mine from the chemist and am having it inserted on Tuesday. I will give you a little rundown of my contraception woes.

I have tried SO many different types of pill, but I always end up with yucky side effects, mood swings, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, sore boobs etc. So I saw my new awesome dr last month and he gave me a new pill to try called Yaz, which has lower doses of hormones. After a month on this new pill I went back to my dr today and explained to him how crazy it has made me. I have never been this moody ad angry in my life ever. He has come to the conclusion that oestrogen sends me crazy. My last go at contraception is now the Mirena which is only Progesteron, no oestrogen. He sayd because I was such a serene calm happy person from the beginning of pregnancy til my body stopped producing milk, that the Mirena should be wonderful for me. During pregnancy and breastfeeding your body produces Progesteron, it seems that Progesteron and me are a great match, hence Mirena should be perfect.

My dr did say that for most women pregnancy and breastfeeding sends them a little batty and they do better with less progesteron and more oestrogen, so I guess that explains why a lot of women hate the Mirena.

Hope that all helped you a bit in understanding how Mirena works. I will post a thread in a few months time and let every one know how my experiene with Mirena is going

Thanks hun that would be great if you could, i'm thinking about alternative contraception to the pill and vasectomy for DH for after the bub comes. I don't think i'm ready for him to have the final decision of a vasectomy in case we change our minds on children in a few years time.

[Oorki Galoorki]

bad side... SIL had it was very hormonal on it then she got PG and had an eptopic pg ended losing one of her tubes. She hadnt realised that was a possibility because the mairna makes the uterus a hostile environment(so fertilised egg went to a NON hostile zone)

she now has to use a diaphram(can not use the pill for other health reasons)

[Trillian]

Mirena is Evil is all I will say about it

[Liviam]

I had my mirena put in just under a month ago and so far no problems. It hasn't affected my b/f and I haven't been unusually cranky or moody (more than normal anyway). I'm still spotting but it is really light and hopefully it will stop soon. I'm going to give it six months and decide if it is a keeper or not. This is our contraception for a few years until DH has the snip. The one thing that DH has commented on is he can feel the strings when we DTD. It's not painful (for him) it just annoys him every now and then.

[widdly]

no worries hun

dou dou - I have taken ectopic into consideration too, not worried about losing a tube though as we dont plan on any more babies.

Trill - Evil??

Liv - glad its going well for you

[didispunk]

I had camping bleeding etc for a month or so.. if that. its ment to be normal to have that for 6 months..
But at 3 months it made me EVIL too Trill!!! I was a nasty nasty woman.. Day I got it out.. My husband said i was a new totally back to normal me girl.

I would get Dh to get the snip now anyday! Let a women's body be natural and let them do something.. why always us?

[Trillian]

I have never felt more out of touch with my body than I did with mirena in. I have mentioned it in several other threads exactly what side effects I had and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

[paradise lost]

I had a Mirena inserted in December 2006. I spotted almost continuously for about 3 months and then on and off for about another 3 months. Then i settled into a pattern of 6-7 days of spotting when AF would have been due, and 2-4 days of spotting when i would have been ovulating. That pattern continued until i had it removed in May 2009 (to ttc).

From about 12 months after i had it inserted i began to get very sore breasts before "af". From literally the day after i O'd (or would have O'd - i got pain and spotting then so i assume i was still ovulating which isn't uncommon with Mirena) they would be agony until af. If i took EPO religiously then i would be ok until a week before, but it never settled completely (without mirena i had sore pre-af breasts for about 5 days each cycle).

Neither insertion or removal was painful for me, and i didn't have significant bleeding from either. After it was removed (hen i would have been Oing) i had nothing, then light spotting at AF time as usual. The next cycle i conieved and lost the baby at 4+3, justafter a positive test. I got pregnant again immediately afterwards and lost that baby at 6+4 - i am convinced by the earliness of the first loss and the shape of the placenta i passed with the 2nd loss that the residual progesterone from the Mirena was preventing me from growing a proper endometrial layer which was interfeing with implantation. It is VERY VERY POSSIBLE i was just unlucky to have those losses, it is not necessarily because of the Mirena. The following month we decided not to try to give my body a break. I took baby-aspirin every day, a high quality prenatal, and drank a lot of RLT to try to increase bloodflow to my uterus ad thus build the layer more. The plan was for us to continue with that until AF was normal (even the bleeding from my losses was lighter than i normally had for AF after the initial passing of the baby) but in true "we're not trying" fashion i got pregnant that cycle too. Here we are, so far all is good and the scan showed a very healthy bang-on-dates babe.

If i wasn't having any more babies i would take Mirena again. It took a few months for my body to get used to it but it was worth it for reliable contraception when that was super important to us. I won't be using it after this baby simply because i know i want more and i don't want to lose more if possible. I'm going to go with the copper IUD after this one, and then maybe the Mirena as our "final solution" - we don't believe getting sterilised is a good option for either of us.

HTH, any questions i'm happy to answer.

[widdly]

trill - I will search for the other threads and check out your side effects

PL - I was worrying last night that Mirena would give me really sore big boobs like in pregnancy...that would suck

Now Im having serious second thoughts...I just dont know how else I am going to sort out my hormones...

[Trillian]

To be fair a lot of women use it and think it's the best thing since sliced bread, but it wasn't for me - far from it and I have never ever had a problem with any form of hormonal contraceptive except for that and a depo injection, and with that I had similar side effects to what I had on the mirena.

[widdly]

thanks Trill. I am actually looking into visiting the Chinese Medical Centre, getting accupuncture, see natropath, try adn naturally balance my hormones and get myself healthy again. I might buy a Maybe Baby and use that as contraception for a while...