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Hi. I've had my paraguard for 6 years now! Amazing.
I felt my strings today for the first time in ages, soft as thread. I guess everything's ok. I had a pap last year and he said it looked fine then, too.
I never had a cramp before I got it. Hardly knew what a cramp was. Now... sometimes they're there, sometimes not. Sometimes it's the running down your legs pain, want to lay down and moan kind of stuff. But usually not.
I've been having unprotected sex regularly for 6 years, and I've never been more than a couple days late. I'm not particularly regular, but I was never nervous.
I don't know. I just read that you can keep the paraguard for longer than 10-12 years? That's exciting. It was kind of weird to think that I'd have to get another one to round out my reproductive years (I'm 33). And it's kinda weird to think that this choice could stay with me.

As I recall those halcyon days of obsessively reading IUD Divas in prep for my own Paraguard insertion, I remember someone lamenting the dearth of long-term updates from users. We see a lot of individuals who are considering an IUD, those who have just had insertion, a few post-insertion updates, and stories of when things go wrong. But few of us come back just to say, "Everything is fine."

I vowed that I would post an update after I had my Paraguard (I'm bad at links, but here is the insertion story: http://iud-divas.livejournal.com/2387464.html) for a year. And that year came and went. Then the next. And just today, a friend told me she was getting a referral for Mirena and I sent her the Diva link so she can be as informed and comfortable as I was. And that's when it hit me: I'm only a few weeks into my third year! What a great opportunity for an update!

Everything is fine. ;)

No wonder people forget to follow up: when an IUD is doing it's thing, it's just nowhere on your mind! Let's see:

1. I was (and am) nulligravida. None of my docs gave me a hard time about it, but as I prepare for the NCLEX (the Nursing Boards test in the US), I'm still finding a lot of textbooks that claim you need to have had a child. I can at least say that my nulligravida status has not interfered with my IUD as far as I can tell.

2. My periods were heavy and unpredictable for a while. Then they tapered to about a week. This is definitely longer than I was used to, and it's a little annoying. But they're pretty consistently at a week now

3. I use a menstrual cup and have not had any problems beyond occasional overflow when my period is at its heaviest. One time, I think I tugged the strings while pulling the cup out. I felt it immediately bcs I always take it slow. So if you use a cup, just be careful and you'll be fine.

4. My partner does not feel it at all. The strings have curled around my cervix quite happily. I try to remember to check them every month or so. Just reach up and scratch at my cervix until I feel them

5. I did have a pregnancy scare last yearish. I have NO idea what happened. My period was over a week late (and I am as regular as they come!) and I was in full freak-out mode. My first pregnancy test was invalid (no lines at all), but the next morning I took a second one and it was negative. I got my period a few days later and everything went relatively back to normal. I have no idea if this was IUD related or just general life, the universe, and everything messing with my bits.

6. Honestly, I'm grasping at straws for anything else.

Overall, it has been an uneventful 3 years, which is the best kind of 3 years you can have when dealing with birth control. To all my fellow divas or would-be divas, I wish you the same satisfaction and peace with your IUDs!

Hey y'all--

So I've reached two years with my Mirena, which has thus far been a GREAT experience.  I got it to help manage my out-of-control periods and, while I still definitely had a period, it was way easier to cope with than previously.  I can actually sleep through the night and make it through a college lecture without bleeding through multiple forms of protection!  Woot!

My question is "Where is my period and why do I smell strange?"  According to the calendar, i should be having my period right now.  My period has stayed very, very regular on the Mirena, and it's been regular pretty much since I was 17...I'm now 35.  However, I had a couple of days of spotting (Sunday and Monday) and now?  No period.  My last period was completely normal for me, including the bleeding requiring super-absorbent tampons, etc. In other words, it didn't show signs of fading into oblivion.  In addition, at the moment I have a small amount of unusual-smelling discharge and overall just a sweatier-smelling crotch. I keep trying to figure out how to describe the smell -- I think it's mostly very metallic, and the discharge definitely tastes more metallic than usual.  My normal taste is ranges from practically non-existent to very salty mushrooms, so this is a new one. It also doesn't seem to change if I consume more water  I haven't been really aroused since having this problem, so I can't tell if producing lubrication changes the smell.

What do you think is up with this?  I could go to the clinic to get tested for BV, but it will take a few days to sort that out.  Also, I wouldn't really describe the odor as 'fishy,' which I think is what you typically get with BV. If I'm wrong, please let me know?

One possible explanation for the vanishing period is a massive increase in Vitamin E consumption.  I normally take about 1,000 mg of Vitamin E a day to help lighten my period, but in the past couple of weeks i've started eating a lot of chia seed.  Because it's high in Omega-3, I'm now up to about 3,000mg of Omega-3s a day.  I wonder if the elevated levels were what my body needed to respond to the Mirena like other folks who just lose their periods on it. But...still.  It's odd.

Thanks!

NB: I've only had sex with condoms in the past month, and I took a pregnancy test and am not pregnant.  I'll retest in a few days just to be sure, but I don't think that's the explanation.

Log time ago, I learned where the accupressure point to get rid of hiccup was, and every time I used, worked perfectly. So now I searched for the accupresure point to ease the menstrual pain and I found this webpage http://www.herbalshop.com/Acupressure/Acupressure_49.html.
I applied pressure with my middle finger only in the place mentioned next to my ankle (G in the image), and the cramp ceased almost completely.  I 've read somewhere else it also help to reduce heavy bleeding by pressing several times a day.

I wanted to share, maybe it could work for someone.

I'm posting this rather late - I had my Paragard, Magneto, inserted quite a few months back. I'm 27, no kids.

I can't honestly say why I've avoided talking about it for so long, but then again, I can. The thing about getting an IUD inserted is that a lot of times, people will post horror stories. And that's what I was bombarded with when I started looking into getting one. Even a week before my insertion, I was freaking out so bad that I was near tears. I was lucky enough to have an amazing gyno and nursing staff that were there to reassure me, and tell me (repeatedly) to stop reading the internet.

How did I get here?

For 5 years, I was on the Nuvaring. Hormonal birth control was an option that my doctor gave me when I had an ovarian cyst that put me in the worst pain of my life. I picked the Nuvaring because it didn't overload my system with hormones and seemed to have the least amount of side effects. Before, my cycle was 7 days long, 2-3 days of heavy bleeding, and bad cramps on the second day. Came like clockwork every month (now, just WHEN in the month was up to it, but it came every month), so I didn't want anything that would majorly screw with that.

However, (and this may be TMI, but it's part of the story), sex, which had always been painful for me, got worse using the Nuvaring over the course of those 5 years and my sex drive waned. I think the idea about hormonal birth control is that the "adverse" side effects show themselves pretty quickly after you start. That wasn't the case with the Nuvaring. When I got into the relationship with my husband (who was then my erstwhile suitor), I was secure enough to tell him that sex was painful for me - and that having to take out the ring so we could screw was getting old (it helped, but the re-insertion was pretty rough. Most people can have sex with the ring in; it just made matters a lot worse for me).

After visiting with my gyno, I mentioned that I would like to go off of hormonal birth control, which she approved. So, I went off birth control and my lovely, stable period LOST. HER. DAMN. MIND. I mean I had bleeding for a month, just unpredictable and horrible. And I say "horrible" in the sense that it was unpredictable. I'm used to my period being a certain way, and when it wasn't, I was like, "Sweet Jesus what fresh hell is this?!" After a few months, and when my period seemed to iron herself out, I went back in and discussed getting an IUD. I wanted birth control, but not with hormones. At the time I first heard of IUDs, I thought they'd never be an option for me, since I was unmarried and childless. By the time I was looking into getting the IUD, the standards had changed, and my gyno was super open to talking to me about not only it, but the sexual issues I'd been having. I told her I wanted to give it a shot, and that I definitely wanted the paragard as opposed to Mirena. I don't feel comfortable with not having a period, truth be told. And as paranoid as I was/am about being pregnant, I thought/think that having something that could potentially eliminate my period would turn me into a nervous wreck.

A friend of mine that had an IUD directed me to this community, and truth be told, I had my ups and downs with it. It felt like the more I read, the more terrified I became. But, I didn't want to pass up the chance for something that felt so statistically proper for not getting pregnant. So I gave the thread here a rest and talked to a friend of mine who has a lifestyle similar to mine when it came to sexual partners and who had a paragard and went from there.

The day of the insertion, my guy went with me, and held my hand at the table side. He helped me get all cuddled under my Batman blanket, and laughed and joked with me to make it a little easier. He also drove, as I had taken some major pain killers before and was swimming.

The insertion?

It hurt. Not going to lie. Even with the pain pills. I can't imagine having it done without the pain meds.

Post insertion?

I was down for a week. I'm super sensitive to changes in my body, and it felt like mine was fighting Magneto for a while. I probably could have gone back to work sooner, but I had taken the week off just for the hell of it and enjoyed the down time. I didn't have any spotting, and my next period came.

So, how is it?

1. Cramps: I have worse cramps than I did before - BUT, I find that taking two midol before they get horrible knocks them out for the day. Cramp bark tea also helps as well. The reason why my cramps were so BAD in the beginning is my fault. Like an idiot, I would WAIT for them to get agonizing before I took anything for them. Nowadays, I start to feel that little twinge and I take something. They're so manageable now that I have to just look back at the days where I'd wait and shake my head. I don't know why I why I did that.

2. My Cycle: It's still the 7 days, sometimes there's an extra light day making it 8, but seriously, no drastic day change. My flow is heavier on my heavy days (which still seem to be about 2-3 days in my cycle), but not so much that I feel faint.

3. Sex: There are moments that it still hurts, but it's not because of the IUD. Some positions gave me a weird twinge in the beginning, but now, not at all. So there is a definite adjustment phase. At least there was for me.

4. Working out: The first time I did a heavy work out post insertion, I had some spotting and cramps. I expected this. Since then, I don't have any issues.

5. Strings: I could feel them on occasion. "Could" being the prime word. At my 1 month follow up, I asked my gyno what was going on, should I be freaking out because I couldn't feel them, oh my god was my IUD misplaced, did it fall out and I didn't know it? (my partner was like, "Okay, so, you can't even use tampons because they hurt. I'm pretty sure if your IUD was slipping out you'd notice.") My gyno calmly explained that everything was still in place, and she'd cut the strings for them not to be felt. I haven't worried since then. Truth be told, with the cramps the way they are, Magento's still in there.

So -

Overall, I like Magento. He does his job and does it well. The only pregnancy "scare" I've had was simply because my period, true to her nature, decided to come a week later than was forecast. I'd like to get to the point where I wasn't so damn paranoid about being pregnant, and I have no idea if/how that's ever going to happen. Ah well.

-K!

I had a rough first week, but it got better.
( Day 1 - Day 7: Insertion, Bleeding, Clots, Sex and Vitamin ECollapse )

Okay, so I've had my paragard for a few months now. I used to have mirena, but didn't like the hormones. I had mirena removed and paragard put in within a few minutes of each other. Now, here's where my question comes in. My doctor said that the iud's tend to work better with women who haven't had children because their uterus' are stronger. Is this true? I am sexually active, and I tend to worry about things more than I should. As of right now, my period is late.... Is it also true that many pregnancies while on an iud happen because of a misplacement or by it falling out? Basically, I need reassurance that I shouldn't be too worried about pregnancy while on paragard, and that as long as I can feel the string, I know it's in place.

I can't sleep with my boyfriend of over a year.
I can sleep completely fine at a few other friend's house, but at my boyfriend's I've gone home numerous times in the middle of the night (including last night) because I lay there never being able to fall asleep. I'm completely comfortable with him, but my mind just does not turn off even though my body is exhausted.
I've taken NyQuil, ZzzQuil, other substances to help me relax which sometimes have helped me successfully sleep a few times...but I still don't like the fact I basically have to drug myself to sleep there!
I'm thinking it might be the mattress because we've slept fine before in another bed, but I can tell it sort of bugs him, getting excited to sleepover and in the morning I'm gone.
I get worried for what if we move in together in the future...

Has anyone else had this issue with sleepovers?
I'm actually considering seeing a doctor because I just can't get my mind to shut off :(
Not sure if I just over think the whole process or what..

Hello lovely Divas!

I posted here a while back after I first got my IUD put in. I am 22 years old I've had a Paragard for 8 months now and I've been very pleased with it, up until about this month, and I'd love some of you guys' input.

I've been pretty regular with the Paragard. I would have my period usually around the same time every month. It would go like this: A couple days of spotting, then nothing, and then I'd get week long heavier bleeding and then it would be done. It wasn't really a hassle, and I didn't mind it.

Last month, though, around April 26th, I started spotting again and I've never really stopped. Some days it's heavier, and some days it's light, but every time I think it's letting up I'll just end up bleeding again the next day. That's a lot of pads! I haven't had sex so I know I'm not pregnant. I don't know if I should be concerned about this or not because I've heard about this happening with the Paragard but after being regular for 7 months with it this is kind of freaking me out. I'm not seeing anyone right now or having sex so it's not impacting my love life or anything, it's definitely going to start affecting my wallet though because I am constantly wearing pads and pantiliners because of the bleeding.

I check the string and the IUD is in place.

I really don't want to have to get it removed because it really has been he best birth control I've had. I can't take hormones. I just want the bleeding to stop. It's been almost a month now!

I'd appreciate anything. Anything at all. Thanks!