Women's health center: experience report on the contraceptive hormone spiral - mirena

Experience report on the contraceptive hormone spiral "Mirena"

Hi there,
With my negative experience regarding the hormone spiral Mirena, I would like to contribute to further education of those affected:

I had the hormone coil inserted about 4 months after the birth of our second child (May 2007). The tip came from a friend who had been wearing the spiral for a year and was still very happy with it at the time.

I found the thought very comfortable and hadn’t gotten acquainted with the side effects (well read, but ok, everything has its side effects …). My gynecologist also advised me to use the spiral because it is simply comfortable and the price-performance ratio over the 5 years that the spiral can be worn is also ok. Since we were sure that we didn’t want any more children for the time being, our decision was quickly made.

The insertion was ok, hardly hurt, although I am sensitive to pain. After that I had spotting until mid-August 2007, which really bothered me. I was about to have it removed (I would have done it!). When the spotting stopped, I was very happy with the spiral. In the meantime, I always had relatively severe abdominal pain, as well as “labor-like” pain, which my gynecologist didn’t really take seriously.

The spiral fit well and it could not be because of that. Just like my severe hair loss. Since I have quite thick and a lot of hair, my FA just looked at me and said that it couldn’t be that bad, I still had enough hair on my head … Ok, the abdominal pain arose from my imagination, because I was healthy and I tend to step into "little things" for fear of being seriously ill.

In the meantime, my friend had let the spiral pull and complained about weeks of extreme nausea, which she could not explain because she was not pregnant. Her gynecologist (who is also mine) said that with the Removal of the spiral could have nothing to do.

In the summer of 2009, the first nervous conditions came about, which I initially managed quite well with homeopathy. I only know that this was another side effect of the spiral since 4 days. Back then I put it down to everyday stress. Then I started doing yoga and autogenic training … In the winter the nervousness repeated, which this summer led to thoughts of suicide.

I had tried to suppress my thoughts again and again, but this increased the nervousness more and more, so that I thought about it again… The beginning was so slow and creeping that I just didn’t think it could be related to the spiral. I continued to put everything on the "everyday stress" and was terrified of being seriously ill, having to be brought in, not being able to be there for my children etc. For fear that this is exactly what will happen if I trust myself to so I didn’t talk to anyone about it either.

In July of this year (2010) my husband (unsuspecting) asked me whether we would like to have a third child. And I immediately got used to the idea that I was happy to be able to distract myself, make new plans and was sure that everything would be the same again … So I called my gynecologist so that I could make an appointment for a removal the spiral got in late August. Removal was not a problem, I was pleasantly surprised. However, the nervousness remained and there was also the nausea. This increased from day to day. The week after the spiral was removed, I stayed at home sick for a day … The following weekend I had a kind of nervous breakdown. I was only nervous, I felt sick, anorexia, had these bad thoughts, could not sleep at night, I was sweating … At some point it burst out of me and my (luckily very understanding) husband listened to the whole thing. I cried a lot and slept a lot afterwards and hoped that it would be over.

On Monday mornings I noticed again that I just couldn’t do it anymore. I registered sick and went to my family doctor. Meanwhile, my husband and I suspected that removing the spiral might have something to do with it. My general practitioner could not imagine this, a week and a half after the removal (but possibly the first days after), but promised to call my gynecologist to ask if she had had something like this more often. Of course (and I could guess the answer) she said no! My family doctor said I should be honest with myself if I really want to have a child or if I have any other problems. She wrote me sick for a week, we agreed that I would come back at the end of the week. I wanted to try homeopathy again instead of tablets, and I attributed my condition to the “everyday stress” and hoped to recover within the week. In the meantime it also got better (by the hour), but there were still "nervous attacks", which mostly resulted in tears and exhaustion. I am so glad that my husband could take a week off so that he could take care of the children and help me …

On Fridays my family doctor wrote me off for half a week so that I didn’t have to start again with the full stress dose. I thought that I would regenerate completely over the weekend. Unfortunately the nervousness remained, not as often, but when it came up I could only cry. I was so afraid that I was suffering from a depression that I can only manage with antidepressants or, at worst, hospitalization. On Monday I had another “seizure” (luckily my husband was at home due to his shift work), after which I had to lie down and sleep. Meanwhile, my husband sat down on the PC and researched the hormone spiral. He was shocked by the many negative reports on the Internet, even though most of them came from the time while wearing the hormone coil. I finally knew what was wrong with me. I was so relieved that at first I thought all of mine issues would be solved. Unfortunately, the nervousness remained, but I can now deal with it better because I know the reason for it (also thanks to the 43rd experience report on Mirena, where the patient was told in the hospital after removing the spiral that she would go through some lows like fear and panic attacks because the hormone balance first has to stabilize). Today, Thursday, was my first day at work. Unfortunately, it was harder than I thought. I was just at home when it broke out of me again. And even though I know that I just need patience now and know the cause, it is no consolation in the hours when I feel bad. I’m still scared then …

I hope every day that it’s over (tomorrow the spiral is out 3 weeks). But it will probably take a little longer for me to completely recover from the whole thing. Thanks to my husband, I am now confident that I can do it.

I hope with this report I could help everyone who had / still had problems after removing the spiral.

Report from a woman to the Women’s Health Center, September 2010