r/IUD

Hey y’all! I got a Mirena in 2019 when I was 16, and I still have it now at 23. My IUD made my period go away within 4 months of getting it, and up until this point I’ve only had occasional spotting and bleeding (like less than once or twice every six months). Now, for the first time since I’ve gotten it, I’ve started having a consistent period again.
I was originally told the Mirena only lasted 5 years, but when I went to try and change it last year they told me it had actually been approved for 8, so I decided to just keep it. My worry is that it is wearing off, and this is why my period is returning.
My partner and I use condoms, but it’s really important to me to have a birth control working for me as well. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice? Would it be smart to go ahead and get it changed? Let me know what you think!

It's really annoying to see people not asking for it . IN NO WAY IT'S LESS PAINFUL OR "hehe it's just like a pinch". if your clinic doesn't wanna do that CHANGE IT. YOU CAN HANDLE WE CAN'T HANDLE AND FOR GOD SAKE CHANGE THE NORM. You are a damn you with same pain signal . Man saying oh we have more pain tolerance is a fucking lie or DOESN'T MEAN WE NEED TO HAVE PAIN. Please ask your clinician and get the invention of anesthesia to a use.

If you prefer using an IUD, which one worked for you and why?

Okay so I’m really looking into getting an IUD, mainly Kyleena. I took birth control when I was around 13 for the purpose of stopping my period for a school trip and I literally broke out in hives. (I don’t remember which kind of pill it was)

I’m 20 now, and haven’t been on any sort of birth control since, but I’m scared my body doesn’t react well to any kinds of extra hormones.

I looked into copper IUD and heard many negative experiences and super heavy bleeding but I’ve also heard the same with Kyleena, it all just depends. Or that people bleed for 1-3 months straight.

I am also on Lamictal for mood stabilization and I heard many hormonal birth controls reduce the blood levels by up to half, rendering my medication much less effective.

Can anyone tell me some positive stories 🫩

hi all! I got mirena iud 40 days ago and after getting my period one week later I never stopped bleeding. I also have cramps every day and even tho majority of time the pain is manageble there were days that not even strong meds helped. went back to the doctor today and he prescribed drospirenone for a month. he didn't explained anything else even tho I asked so my question for you is: have anyone else went thru this? should I expect any weird side effects?
i'm traveling abroad in 1 week and I'm not sure if I start it now of after my vacation.
thanks a lot!

Stupid question. Mine is several years old and it just came out. Do I need to save it? Like if get it put back in they are going to give me a new one right?

I just got an iud (Kyleena) 3 weeks ago and i have this weird tension in my pelvis, like there is a tampon in the wrong spot or like air bubbles in my vagina.. (sorry tmi)

Does anyone else have this experience in the first few weeks? And how long did it take before it went away? (My iud is in the right place!)..

For context me (22m) and my wife (22f) have been together for 5, almost 6 years. We were recently married and have lived together for the past year. Our relationship has had some up and downs but for the most part our relationship has always been good and healthy and we love each other very much. Ofc we both have our flows but we try our best to communicate when we fall short and fix it and if there is ever a fight we always squash it within the same couple hours and make up (never had big fights very often). Despite those flaws we still love each other very much and love being together. However things changed about 2-3 weeks ago. I’ll spare most of the long details, but she wants nothing to do with me, and wants to be with somebody who has completely different characteristics than myself. I could tell that she was off for the past couple weeks, and I knew there was a lot on her mind including things about our relationship, and asked her what was wrong. She was not ready to talk about it and so I gave her space and told her when she was ready to talk to me. In those next couple weeks, she felt like a completely new person, wouldn’t want to touch me, talk to me, or even look at me and when she would look at me there was so much disgust behind it. Fast forward to 2 days ago and she asked for a divorce and kicked me out, and it was all just so sudden and a complete shock to me. I’ll admit I have my flaws, and not always the best with communicating and showing my emotions, and I am still in the process of working on it, but it was like it was a relationship shattering event this time which it never had. When we were having the conversation 2 days ago, I genuinely felt like I was talking to a stranger, she was so cold, and had so much disgust with me, which shocked me to death because we’ve had such a good relationship for YEARS until 2-3 weeks ago. I tried to figure out why just 2-3 weeks ago and realized she started a new birth control that week (iud, not sure what type) and I’ve heard stories where peoples partners will lose all attraction to them and not want anything to do with them after they get on birth control, could these be a possibility in this situation? Again I don’t want to push the blame of my shortcomings on anything or anyone else, but even my shortcomings at times have never caused something of this scale, and I have only improved in my shortcomings. Just looking for advice or feedback if this is something that could potentially be caused by birth control, thank you

hi! i plan on getting a kyleena iud this week! im excited to have it, but i dread the insertion. any tips?? i know it will hurt and i want to prepared for that. my gyn didn’t say anything about a numbing medication. surely they would use that kind of thing these days, right? I will definitely still ask for lidocaine (ive heard bad things about the shot though so probably just the gel??). she also said to take 800mg of ibuprofen, i’ll probably take 1000mg. i’m just not always that great with pain. i want it to be as painless as possible. is there anything else i should do to help it go as smooth as possible? please help, getting really nervous!

I'm 41. I've had IUDs for the last 15 years or so. Both insertions were AWFUL (one had me puking in pain on the side of the road, the other had me literally screaming while the doctor told me it would go faster if I could get it together and be quiet).

I cannot handle another insertion. My husband had a vasectomy so I don't have to. I live in Texas and very much do not want to get pregnant, esp as I approach perimenopause and periods are irregular.

Anyway my Liletta was removed yesterday, after 7 faithful years. I told my doctor all of the above. I told her future contraception was something I wanted to talk about. She told me that would have to be another appointment because insurance wouldn't cover it, but that I was going to want another IUD.

Specifically she says "we can schedule insertion now, or we can wait a few months and when everything goes to hell in a hand basket you can call and schedule it then. But you're going to want another IUD".

And then she left. WTF does she mean? Why the threat?

TLDR- liletta was removed and my doctor only told me to expect "everything goes to hell in a hand basket " and I don't know what that meant.

Hey guys! I wanted to share my experience with getting my IUD inserted. Overall, it wasn’t great. It hurt a lot (I’ll break it down) but overall was over in 4 minutes and was like an 8/10.

The night before I took a misoprostol (orally and sublingual) and had absolutely no pain or blood from it. I also did not experience any side effects like nausea or indgestion. I’ve heard some women say it’s the worst pain they’ve ever had but I felt nothing at all, so take that with a grain of salt.

For the procedure I decided not to use the nitrous oxide (laughing gas) because it typically causes me to panic and have worse anxiety. \*note: the nitrous oxide does NOT curb the pain, it curbs your nerves about the procedure\* The speculum was uncomfortable and weird but not really painful. My doctor used a lidocaine spray to help with the measurement pain, and that does burn a bit but really helped with numbing.

The doctor used forceps to hold my cervix in place and measured and that was painful. I would say like a 8/10. The forceps were super pinchy and the measuring was really sharp painful. Once she removed the measuring tool she inserted the actual IUD and that felt similar to measurement, maybe a little less painful even. Now, the absolute worst part and 10/10 pain was when the IUD opened in my uterus. It was about 5-10 seconds but it was a super sharp and crampy pain. Then she cut my strings and the procedure was over.

Being unclamped from the forceps and having the speculum removed was so reliving and immediately helped me relax and calm down from the procedure.

Reflecting, it definitely sucked a lot. I’m about two hours post procedure and my cramps are ok, pretty bearable. But I get severe period cramps so they’re fairly on par. If you can advocate for misoprostol I highly recommend, and ask for a lidocaine spray as well. Pain killers are your friend for sure. Overall, it sucked but the procedure was so short and pretty immediate relief really helped.

20F. 5'6. ~120lbs. long family history of endo, pcos, uterine cancer, fibroids, and complete hysterectomies due to complications from these. i do not have any of it so far. no meds.

in about may 2022 i got the IUD inserted (i believe kyleena). it was unbelievably painful and i was paralyzed from the pain for a good 10-15 minutes. i had to get it removed prematurely april this year because it was embedded in my uterus. i've been on the depo since.

next march i will no longer have insurance and i have an appt july 10th where i either get another depo shot or i get the IUD again. i figure the one where i don't have to go back every 3 months would be the better option, but considering how painful it was the first time and the fact it got embedded, i am nervous about getting it again.

since it happened once, does that make it more likely to happen again? is 3 months long enough to let my uterus heal from the original IUD or will this make reinsertion even more painful and more likely for complications? my husband wants me to completely go off birth controls and just use condoms, but i don't trust our luck.

the pill is not an option for me as i cannot consistently take medication for more than like a week and a half. the depo shot causes me to be nauseous every day and it gets worse in the heat, which i am blue collar and work outside or else i might consider using it until around march.

thank you in advance.

I have had my mirena IUD since October of 2024, roughly 20 months. Recently, after my partner and I have sex, I will experience some slight lower abdominal cramping (doesn’t necessarily hurt just somewhat uncomfortable & does not last long at all) and some vaginal bleeding. Usually, the bleeding only occurs immediately after when I use the restroom. Last night my partner and I had sex and afterwards I went to the restroom and noticed bleeding. However, it’s the following day and there is still some bleeding but no cramping. I don’t necessarily need a pad or tampon but I’m curious if anyone has had this experience??? Is this something I should be concerned about???

For more context: I am also on Sertraline (SSRI) & one of the side effects is abnormal bleeding.
I also have not had a “real” period since getting my IUD. I will spot a little bit here and there.

Sorry if this is TMI I just want to see if I am overreacting or if i need to contact my dr.

I don’t know if this is the right place to post this. Why when I first started my period at 13 was it 28 days long and extremely heavy. I used to have clots the size of a dime to a quarter but I know anymore. I went on birth control pills around the age of 15 for I think until the age of 26 or 27. I was never tested for any blood disorder. Or anything else. My mom has suspected polycythemia. I would have to get new underwear and pants at least once a month. I would have to stay home because of cramps at least once a month. I would go through super tampons and a pad within 30 minutes to an hour every single day for 28 days straight, it was constant. When I was 25 I thought I had PCOS so she tested me for it and nothing was wrong. Now I’m 29 and it’s pretty regular and normal flow 5-7 days. I was on IUD but just got that removed in April still on birth control pills had a period in April 52 days later got my period. Why was I originally like that during my teens?

Back story. I had my mirena removed after having it for 7 years and then I had another one prior to that for 8 years also. Basically - 15 solid years of mirena IUD.

AFTER having it removed, roughly 3 months later, I experienced this sharp ZING of pain right around the area where my left ovary is. The pain only lasts literally a second and then it’s gone. No lingering issues until it happens again. It happened for about 24 hours two weeks ago so I went in and did a urine culture, had a pap, all of that. Everything was normal. I asked for an ultrasound but my appointment isn’t for two weeks.

The pain went away after a day or so. It was completely gone for over a week. Then it slowly crept back in. A zing once in the middle of the night. Then another the next day, then one every couple hours. What does this sound like? It literally like I said only lasts a second and then I’m right back to normal. Anyone experience this?

I just had the Mirena IUD inserted on Monday, turns out I have a retroverted uterus and it was extremely difficult and painful to get it in. My endometriosis is apparently what caused that, and my gynecologist has been trying to get me on birth control for a while to help with the pain and the heavy bleeding. I've used pills twice in the past but both times it just messed with my cycle and I was spotting pretty much consistently.

I was prepared to have spotting with an IUD, but I didn't know it'd still be this heavy after 5 days. It's not heavy heavy, but enough to need a tampon.

I know everyone's bodies react differently, but what has y'all's experiences been so fair in regards to the duration of cramping and bleeding?

Thanks in advance

has your partner ever had issues after intercourse ?

He will have slight abrasions afterwards and I think it’s because he’s slightly rubbing against the iud strings . We tried to schedule a urologist appointment for him but they said the soonest opening was January 2027😳

do I need to go in to cut my strings ? Or anyone else have a similar situation. He says it doesn’t hurt or itch . Just slight abrasions after we do it .

this is my first iud ever .mirena iud if that helps

I’ve had it since October and the abrasions started shortly afterwards

Hi! I’ve had the Kyleena IUD for 15 months. So far my periods have been lighter, but longer. I am currently 5 days late with my period, I took 3 tests & all were negative. Is there a chance I might finally be losing my period? Has this happened to anyone else?

I am very prone to cystic acne. I have trouble losing weight and bloat super easily - I’ve been diagnosed with PCOS so I have a hormone imbalance.

My current periods are normal, not heavy and I don’t get any period cramps. I do experience PMDD during my periods though.

I want to get an IUD but I feel like the only one that would work for me is the Copper IUD bc it doesn’t contain hormones.

Has anyone tried a hormonal IUD with similar issues as me , that didn’t cause them to gain weight, get acne or bloat more? Or should I just try the copper IUD?