Mirena Madness

I have had many people ask me lately if I have a blog, or tell me I need to write a blog and I could make a ton of money.  Honestly I have no idea how people make money writing a blog, and even have time to do on continually. But, I have a bunch of ideas of things to blog about, and I really think that my story could help other people, so maybe I should write more... I say that now:)  But with everything I could be writing about like having 4 kids the oldest is 5 and one has Autism, or our process of buying a house (which we should be closing on at the end of this month!!) today I want to write about the Mirena (hints the name of this post)

FYI- This post may be a little TMI for some, dealing with "girly things" so stop reading now if you don't want to know the details:)

I have tried birth control pills, and even if I didn't go crazy on them, I still can't take them because I have a history of blood clots, which they believe was from the pill.  After my oldest son was born I had the Mirena put in and it was the most painful process ever!!  And even after that painful experience I could feel it (like I didn't put a tampon in far enough) and they didn't cut the strings so every time I wiped I felt like I was going to pull it out.  Anyway, so after a month of that I had it taken out.  I was living in Idaho when I had this experience.  So, basically I can't have anything with estrogen and the only other option was a depo shot or the little metal thing that goes in your arm (I can't think of what that is called now...).  My cousin introduced me to a method called Fertility Awareness Method (just get the book, it's great).  That is what I did after I had blood clots and after I had my third child.  It really works for me.  Basically you track your temp, cervical fluid, and cervix (I only did the first two) to know when you are ovulating.  Our bodies truly are amazing things that can tell us these kind of thing.  However, in order for it to be affective you have to track consistently.  Luckily there are many Apps now that can help, I like the Period Tracker (it has a picture of a flower as the face).  Well, after my fourth child I really didn't want to have any more kids right away and I thought maybe it would be easier to not have to track every single day.  Of course the doctor is going to push some kind of birth control.  So after talking to my doctor, I decided to try the Mirena again.

This doctor (now in Texas) numbed my cervix, which I have never had done before, so that felt kind of weird... but at least it didn't hurt to be put in this time.  And he cut the strings so I can't feel anything at all.  That is about all that has been positive about the experience.  I was losing weight consistently from eating right and exercising, but as soon as I had the M put in, I have not been able to loose a pound.  They say that weight gain is not a side effect, however after really digging on the Mirena's official website apparently there was weight gain in under 5% of users, so maybe I'm in that 5% and I'm just not gaining weight because I am striving to take care of my body.  That's just a bummer to be doing all the work and not seeing any results.  If that was all, it wouldn't be so bad, not great, but not awful.

I had the M inserted over 3 months ago and I am still bleeding every single day.  Yep, you read that right. Including the bleeding after having my fourth baby, I have been bleeding every single day for 4 1/2 months!  I describe it as, more then a panty liner could hold, but I'm not soaking through pads or anything.  Well after bleeding for 6 weeks I called the doctor.  They said in a perfect world, you would only spot a couple of days and then you would have little to no periods for the next 5 years (the length of the M).  But that it could take up to 3 months for the bleeding to stop.  So I just though, well I guess I will give it the full 3 months.  I did, and still bleeding every day.  I call the doctor back (just talking to a nurse) and she was like, that is not normal to bleed every day.  Maybe continued spotting for up to 3 months, but not bleeding every day.  So the options? First is to take a pill to regulate my body, but oh, I have a history of blood clots, so I can't do that, not that I would want to, I don't like the idea of all those hormones in my body.  Second to take a progesterone shot, which would force me to have a period and then hopefully regulate my body.  However, the issue with that is there is a 50/50 chance it would work, or it could cause my body to bleed a ton more and not stop, which obviously is not good, so they don't really want to do that.  Third, have it removed.  The downside to that?  They want $250 just to pull it out!  Um, we are in the process of buying a house right now and we just don't have $250 to spend on that.  Honestly I have tried taking it out myself, I can feel the strings, but I just can't get a grip on them.  So what do I do?  Still I'm not sure.

There are other things too, like how tired I am ALL the time, and I cry at everything! If I didn't have an IUD, I might think I was pregnant:)  I guess the concern now too with all the bleeding is that I am anemic.

I was talking to Kyle about it and I asked, "Why does my body not like birth control?" He responded, "Because a woman as beautiful as you should never stop having babies!" yep, he is the best husband ever!!!

Lesson learned is that I just need to track, it works for me, and it is natural and healthy.  I don't need or want extra things in my body that cause me to not "be me."  Another lesson is to not let somebody talk me into something (I was really hesitant to get the M because of my first experience, and ulitmatly the decision was mine, but I did feel a lot of pressure from the doctor).  I am so grateful to be able to have children and I love all of mine dearly, but I just don't want to have 20 kids:)  Even though they would all be super cute!!

Well hopefully we can get something worked out this week, where I will stop bleeding and I can have my body back.  But if you are thinking of getting the Mirena, in my experiences, Don't Do It!!!