My experience with Mirena was one that has caused me to try and talk everyone I know out of ever having it implanted. Mirena is an IUD that releases small amounts of hormones in the uterus that help prevent pregnancy in a number of ways. When I had Mirena implanted it was only offered to people in my area who had already had children, now it is offered to anyone who wants to prevent pregnancy for up to 5 years or lessen the severity of periods. At first I thought the issues I had from Mirena must be known to my doctor, but after talking with him he had no idea that it caused the problems and still doesn’t believe that it was the cause for the issues.
I had Mirena put in 6 weeks after my daughter was born on May 1st, 2007. I felt fine for the first couple of weeks, until it came time for our honeymoon about a month later. Being intimate with my husband hurt me and he could feel the IUD. The fact that we had a daughter that was only 3 month’s old at the time, and that we had both decided to go back to college and finish our degrees, we decided that dealing with this one side effect was worth it. This decision changed however as the time with the IUD in went on.
By the end of August of 2007 I had started to gain some weight. I had been a size 6 when I conceived my daughter, and had lost weight in the beginning of the pregnancy because of how high her metabolism was while I was pregnant. Towards the end of the pregnancy I had gained about 30 lbs, but I had been all belly, and therefore had lost almost all of the weight after having her. By August however I had gained that much weight back, despite breast feeding, exercising, and staying busy with the new baby, school, and two jobs. By November of 2007 I had gained 80 lbs, and could not keep the weight off despite eating healthy and keeping up with exercise. I began having headaches, back pain, abdominal pain, and pain in my joints. I went to the doctor and was told that it was probable that I had Fibromyalgia. After some research on it, I found that most of my symptoms fit so I accepted this and went on to try and find things to help me, little did I know however that I did have the condition, but it wasn’t what was causing my problems.
In December of 2007 I began bleeding profusely. I bled so much that I felt weak, and then passed a golf ball sized clot that had skin colored mucus in it. After some research I found that it was possible that I had had a miscarriage, but was told by the doctor that it was highly unlikely because the chances of getting pregnant with Mirena were just too small. I took a home pregnancy test, which showed a super faint positive, but by the time I got to the health department their test was showing negative. I later found out that in the 5 days that it took me to be able to get to a doctor (as this had occurred during Christmas), my HGC had dropped and it was then too hard to positively identify a miscarriage. I was given a strong pain killer and stress reduction medication for the headaches and back pain, but was reluctant to take them with an infant daughter to care for. After being told that it was a 1 in a million chance I got pregnant with Mirena in, so it would not happen again, and continuing to think that my issues were from fibro, I opted to keep the IUD in.
I continued gaining weight through May of 2008, and was actually told by another doctor that it didn’t make since. I was eating healthy, drinking plenty of water, getting exercise, and had a one year old to chase after. My hair began to dry and fall out, I began to get acne like I had never had before, and I had not had a period or bleeding since the suspected miscarriage in December. I continued having headaches, and the pain in my back was to the point that I could barely lift our daughter. I began to get depressed, and feel like it was my fault and I must be doing something wrong. My sex drive was gone, and my husband although very gentle and calm with me, was a little disturbed by this fact. He had to do most of the housework because of the pain I was experiencing, and this began to cause issues in our marriage as well. We didn’t fight, but the tension was horrible. I felt like he thought it was my fault as well.
My cousin was the one who pushed the final breaking point, and offered to pay and have the Mirena removed. When she realized how much it was affecting me, she said that it was the only thing that could be causing the problems. I still wasn’t thinking about the IUD as the issue, but listened to what she said. For the first time since having it put in, I decided to do some research. Not on what it was, or how it worked, or even the listed side effects, but other women’s stories and other doctors reviews. I quickly found out what my cousin had feared and that it had to be the culprit. I found out that although weight gain was still not a common side effect and most doctors would tell you it wasn’t possible, that it did cause cysts. With too many cysts, natural hormone production was dropped, which can cause weight gain just as it does in polycystic ovarian syndrome. I also found on the Mirena website that headaches and depression were side effects, and that pregnancy does sometimes occur with Mirena, but that in most cases it can end in miscarriage.
What completely changed my mind on Mirena forever was finding a research article that was done that showed that Mirena did not keep you from getting pregnant necessarily. It tried to stop sperm from entering the fallopian tubes, and the hormones were suppose to thin the lining of the uterus, and make it harder for the egg to implant. It was also suppose to thicken the cervix to keep sperm out. When thinking about this though, what it was basically saying is, sperm can still get to the egg because you are still producing an egg. This meant that the egg could still be fertilized, and try to implant, but not be able to. In my personal and religious views, this is murder, and this is the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. I allowed my cousin to pay and have the IUD removed, and despite arguing with the doctor at the appointment (he didn’t believe any of it, and didn’t want to remove it at first) I finally had it taken out.
My headaches were gone within a week, my period returned, some of the back pain subsided, joint pain lessened, I no longer felt depressed, and I lost 5 pounds within 2 weeks of it being taken out. I thought that we had finally reached the end of the tunnel, and my fibro began to remiss as well. We were happy, and everything seemed great, until we decided to try for another baby in February of 2009. We continued trying until February of 2010 and finally decided after a year of no success, and a couple of months with abnormal periods, to see a doctor.
I had lost 40 pounds by that point, but was still overweight, and so we thought maybe that was the problem, as did the doctor. He did an ultrasound only to find multiple cysts on both ovaries. He said that they were severe enough that they may inhibit ovulation, and put me on low dose birth control thinking it might help, and it did, we found out a few weeks later we were expecting our second child, only to be crushed with a miscarriage 4 weeks into the pregnancy. We then suffered a chemical pregnancy in June, and again in September. With no answers and not knowing what to do at this point, I decided to see the doctor again. He said that I had scar tissue, but that he didn’t think it was from the cesarean when I had my daughter, because it was all over the uterus. The only explanation was the IUD. The embryos were having trouble implanting and he then told me he didn’t think it was the IUD that they just naturally weren’t “sticking”. I asked around and found out that there were a few people in my immediate family that had had the IUD and then went on to have anywhere from 2-5 miscarriages. Coincidence? I don’t think so. The only word of advice from my doctor was to just keep trying, and not to take a test unless my period was 2 weeks late, which would allow me not to know when I had another early miscarriage or chemical pregnancy.
This is how Mirena has ruined my life; we have been fighting because of some issue with Mirena for 3½ years now. No woman should have an IUD implanted by a doctor that won’t admit to the problems it can cause. We don’t just need to know about the headaches and depression; we need to know about that 20% who can’t conceive after it is taken out. I advise any and all women who have had Mirena, and had major side effects, or women who have had it removed and went on to have trouble conceiving or miscarriages, to visit the FDA’s site and fill out a report. The only way we are going to keep other women from suffering, is to speak up and fight against the fact that doctors won’t recognize the issues. Most insurance companies won’t cover fertility treatments, and having our uterus scraped to lessen scar tissue is sometimes considered just that. We should not have to deal with the side effects of this device, and we should not be unknowingly stripped of our fertility.
