Getting An IUD Ruined My Hormones And My Sex Life

Getting An IUD Ruined My Hormones And My Sex Life

IUDs are often touted as a miracle invention in the birth control world, but it was the opposite of a miracle for me. These little plastic implants wrecked my hormones, ruined many pairs of innocent underwear, damaged my vagina, and still haunts my sex life years later.

  1. Spontaneous Expulsion Happens And It Can Be Very Painful. My first IUD lasted 10 months and was removed after they did an ultrasound that showed it was slightly askew. Removal was painful but quick. The second one lasted seven months and expelled on its own. That experience was particularly traumatic for me as it got increasingly painful over several hours. It took me the entire morning to figure out these weren’t the usual shooting pains. The third IUD lasted two weeks and came out completely unnoticed. I came home from running errands, promptly emptied my menstrual cup and found it casually sitting inside. Great.
  2. After Each Expulsion, I Bled For 12 Days Straight. The first warning sign was when I drenched two super tampons in an hour and passed a foot long clot. After that, the clots were non-stop and averaged the size of a golf ball. I panicked until I was told this could happen after removal and would subside. Maybe something I’d like to have known sooner. I would change tampons three times an hour until I discovered diva cups. I couldn’t imagine the horror of going even 10 minutes without one. For obvious reasons, this put a damper on my sex life with my lovable, sexy boyfriend. When we went for it anyway, the consequences were reminiscent of The Shining.
  3. To Stop The Bleeding, I Had To Take The Pill Four Times a Day. With the first removal, my gyno addressed the bleeding by prescribing both a pill birth control that I was to take four times a day along with nausea medication. As you might imagine, taking that many BC pills in one day would cause stomach upset. While the bleeding subsided within hours, I was so nauseous that I couldn’t even walk if I didn’t take the nausea medication at the right time. I did this for three days but stopped because of the side effects. The bleeding persisted but I preferred that over debilitating stomach upset. A few days later, I got my second IUD and it cleared up.
  4. The Blood Loss Affected My Heart. Due to the constant bleeding, my heart had to work harder to make up for the loss. This caused dizziness and shortness of breath from mundane activities like getting up from my office chair or opening a door too fast. I even got some judgmental stares for opting to take the elevator over the stairs. It was a three story office building. This was temporary but it only added an extra scoop to my side effect sundae.
  5. My Estrogen Levels Became That Of A Post-Menopausal Woman. Atrophic Vaginitis is generally reserved for women going through menopause due to a drop in estrogen levels. This drop causes the vagina and/or vaginal canal to lose elasticity and lubrication, leading to vaginal tearing. Thus, the hormonal fluctuations from the failed IUDs sent my estrogen levels into an all-out riot. The mix of life and hormonal stress resulted in a small tear near the opening of my vagina making sex very, very painful. The dry skin wasn’t able to heal and each time we had sex, it ripped open again. I’m a healthy 31-year-old, yet here I am, applying topical hormone cream to restore and mend the skin. Now, we have sex every two months to allow for healing and even then, it usually involves pain.
  6. I Have A Reoccurring Ovarian Cyst. Take all the hormonal fluctuations and the inherent risk of cysts that come with IUDs and you get me with a 3cm cyst that set up shop in my right ovary. It’s too small to need surgery but large enough to cause shooting pain when I sneeze. It’s been there for at least three years and goes up or down in size depending on where I am in my cycle. At its largest, I can feel it when I press on my abdomen.
  7. I Still Had Periods With The IUD In Place. Pay attention to the wording of the warnings in those pretty pamphlets. You may experience spotting or bleeding, but this is rare. Most women’s menstrual cycles stop completely after 6 months. I, like most women, shrugged off these warnings as outliers. Worst case situations and the like. That is until it was clear I would still see Aunt Flo for nine days out of the month. And, like any terrible guest, she showed up without warning and ate all my food.
  8. The IUD Caused Stabbing Pain. The doctors warned that some cramps may happen after insertion but they subside. This, my friends, is the understatement of understatements. Not only did the post insertion cramps hurt like hell for days, I also had shooting pain in my pelvic floor, like someone was stabbing me in the butt. These pains lasted throughout my entire time hosting IUDs. Similar to Aunt Flo, the pain would surge in less than ideal situations, such as driving or work meetings. Cut to me, pulling over to clench my pelvic floor muscles until it subsided. I thought this was a normal part of having an IUD. It wasn’t.
  9. Sex Could Be Painful Afterward. Due to life circumstances, I wasn’t in a great place for dating, let alone sex. When I finally got some delicious action after 10 months with my first implant, I laid in bed with deep, aching cramps that radiated down my thighs. Deep down I knew it was an IUD issue but I was so terrified of it not working out that I was more willing to put up with pain than be told it wasn’t right for me.
  10. I Was Moody AF. The first three months were marked with terrible cramps and a moodiness unlike anything I thought possible. Never before had I experienced this magnitude of mood swings in all the BC forms I’d tried. I picked fights with friends intentionally and demonized any faintly annoying situation as a systemic societal issue. I’d ruminate on upsetting situations from the past like it was happening now. My roommates never really forgave me for the way I acted and it was a tense year of living out our lease. Luckily, I mended all those strained relationships with close friends.
  11. I Was In Constant Fear Of Getting Pregnant. I really couldn’t tell when that plastic rod would start to shimmy its way down. I still don’t know how fast the process is either. Everything would be business as usual until I started to bleed heavily about half way into my period. Many surprise pregnancies are due to BC failure, and IUDs have the highest risk of ectopic pregnancies. While I’d known it was highly unlikely a fetus could withstand that level of bleeding, it was equally unlikely to have the number of side effects I’d already endured. Thank goodness for the 25 pack of Wondfo tests, am I right?
Kim is living, working, and enjoying every minute of living in Seattle. She enjoys sewing random patterns from Pinterest, sleeping, and takes quite the fancy to audio books. She hopes to upheave her career path one day, but in the meantime, she is content with her 9 to 5 grind while freelance writing on the side.
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