Dunno Alan, but when i had mine fitted they told me it is reltively normal for women to FAINT during a NORMAL, CORRECT insertion. Of course i barely had a cramp, but they were still very concerned about me getting the bus home alone and being in charge of my DD alone that evening (made me call DP and get him to come over while i was still in the clinic). Perhaps the lock on the sound was broken? When mine was fitted they inserted the sound/applicator, locked the stop at my cervix (so the next time they inserted they COULDN'T go too deep), put the mirena into the end and reinserted as deep as the lock and then released the Mirena and withdrew the sound/applicator.

Perforation does occur sometimes. I asked for stats before i let the doctor do it. The clinic had had one perforation in 7500 insertions and my doctor personally had 0 perforations in 900 insertions. Mine is still where it was put!

As an aside my friend has Mirena and her strings vanish and reappear at regular but random intervals and hers isn't "lost". In fact one of my strings went missing about a month after insertion but the other one is still there so i'm not worried.

Bx