iud

[Gwen]

been pondering getting a copper iud. was wondering what kinds of experiences folks have had with them. i looked on a few different forums and have mostly read horror stories. didn't know if that was cause only the ppl with bad experiences talk or if it's really that bad. thought i'd ask here and see what the feed back was from ppl i was a bit more fimilar with.

this is not a thread about the doctrine of birth control or if it's right or wrong. i simply want feedback from women that have used one or those that have had close family/spouse or friends that have used one and are willing to share.

thanks

[lestertheemt]

I have no personal experience w/ either the Mirena or the ParaGard (copperT) IUD's. The physician I worked for however placed numerous of both.

One thing you have to remember is that it is only 99% effective and I have seen the 1% happen!!

It truly is a personal choice and one has to be comfortable checking for the device.

In case your interested here is the official site to the copper T IUD:

ParaGard IUD Contraceptive - Birth Control Options using Intrauterine Conception - ParaGard.

good luck!

[lost87]

ok...I am only saying this in response to the question, so no one take offense please! I worked for an OBGYN for 6 years and they placed a lot of the IUD's...i'd say about half the people who had them placed came back within a couple months saying that their partners complained that they could feel it during intimacy and wanted it gone. the other half had no problems and loved it...but i, like lester, have seen the 1%...and I'm thinking that if we both have seen it then its possible that its a bit more than 1%...maybe? Anyhow...from what i've experienced you'll either love the IUD or you'll hate it..there really isn't an in between.....make sure your insurance will cover it though if you choose to go forward with the idea..we had a lot of claims denied for the Mirena. And hey, if you hate it then you can always have it taken out...if not your good to go...well, unless your so lucky as to be the supposed 1%

[Lbybug]

i'm a result of that 1%

my mom was using an IUD when she got pregnant with me.

but that was 28 years ago....so times have changed, i'm sure.

[Jenamarie]

I went back and forth on whether or not to get an IUD, and ended up getting it, even though I have a niece who is one of that "one percent". What finally convinced me to go with it was:

1) I am TERRIBLE at remembering to take a pill or insert a ring. Just terrible. And my DH hates condoms.

2) It has the same failure rate as having your tubes tied.

Now, some down-sides: You will probably have The Period that Never Ends for the first 3 months or so. But after that you either have very light regular periods, or no periods at all. (I, unfortunately, seem to have fallen into that first category )

FYI: I have the Mirena IUD.

[Gwen]

i can't have anything hormonal. my 5th child is a result of the failure rate of condoms. my doc recommended the copper iud. i've been reading and reading, i don't know what to do. i guess if i don't feel good about it then it should be enough of an answer for me.... ?

[Wingnut]

Gwen, I would agree with your last statement -- if you don't feel good about it, that you should pay attention to that feeling. However, you need to figure out why you don't feel good about it. Is it because of what you've heard about the IUD from back in the 70's (the failures of which Lbybug is a result of)? Or is it just a personal feeling? I just found this article yesterday and thought the timing was good for your question: Why more young women should start using IUDs. - By Kate Klonick - Slate Magazine

[Gwen]

thank you wing for the article..... i agree i need to figure out why i'm uncomfortable... this has been kinda my thinking...

the first time i heard about iud's was in high school, the one day lecture we got on contraception. in that the only thing discussed about the iud was the dangers you hear about (the old ones). i was told they prevented pregnancy by keeping the uterus so irritated that nothing could implant and if it did it would get scraped off. which didn't sound healthy or pain free. to be honest to me it sounded a bit like the earliest form of abortion available. i decided at that time it wasn't on my list of things to consider.... when that was something for me to have to consider. lol

other than condoms/diaphragm/spermicides all other forms of birth control i knew about were hormonal. due to many factors hormonal bc isn't an option i'll consider. didn't use any form of bc till after child #4. my testimony has been on quite the roller coaster getting to that point (my husband was adamantly against it). i'm not 100% sure my husband has ever really become comfortable using anything but since that's his only option other than abstinence he's put up with it.

which brings me to now. i've recently started on some hrt, one of which is testosterone. i know the consequences of my getting pregnant right now are much greater for the baby. i don't want to risk that. so i was pondering what would be more effective seeing as how i've already had one child using the standard barrier methods. the dr that is doing my hrt suggested the copper iud. so i came home and started looking things up on it. finding out the copper plays a part and it's not some form of abortion made me feel better. after reading about how it worked etc i was actually very interested. felt pretty good about it. so i took the facts to my husband. he's not thrilled with the idea. i guess in my mind if we are using condoms what's the difference "doctrinally" from using an iud. the hormones i'm on are on a very specific schedule so my life has become more scheduled than ever (which is very hard for me). there is so much i'm carrying and trying to keep up with. if i could take that one thing (stress and worry about bc, what if i get pregnant, and the stress it brings to my marriage) off my shoulders it would mean so much. so anyway, thinking on all this i felt good about it but since my husband didn't i started doing more looking. that's when i read all the horror stories that are out there. women who hated it and were back at the dr to get them out in less than 2 months. dr's that didn't know how to put them in and ended up causing injury. just all kinds of stories, very few good. so then i started doubting that this could be a good thing.

that's when i decided to ask here, see if there was anyone that i "knew" that had an experience they could share......

it's just this nagging feeling but i'm not sure what it means or where it's coming from...... sigh

[Wingnut]

Gwen, I know you said that you don't want this to turn into a good vs. evil doctrinal debate on the virtues and vices of birth control, but you also asked (rhetorically) what the difference is between an IUD and a condom, doctrinally speaking. There isn't one. There are only two forms of birth control that the Church discourages: abortion (obviously a very serious sin/offense if used as birth control), and a hysterectomy/vasectomy surgery for the purposes of birth control. If one of those procedures has to happen for other reasons, that's different, as (I imagine) it would be different if you know you're already done having kids.

I can't take hormonal birth control pills, either. I've only even been on them once, and only on one brand, but they took a toll on me. Rapid (and excessive) weight gain, charlie horses in the middle of the night, ugh. After about nine or ten months, I stopped taking them. I picked up the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler, and started using the Fertility Awareness Method. A lot of people think it's the same as the rhythm method, but it's not. It teaches you how to read your body's signals (temperature, cervical fluid, cervix position) so that you know when you are fertile and not. When you are fertile, you use a condom (or diaphragm or spermicide) when you have sex. When you're no longer fertile, you don't have to use a barrier method at all. It's really great if you're irregular, too, because you can see exactly what your body is doing and when.

Once we're done having children, I will probably have an IUD put in, instead of continuing to use FAM, but until then, it's working really well for us so far. I would highly recommend that you pick the book up. In fact, every woman should read it, because every woman should know how her body works. For that matter, every man should read it, too. My husband has read it all the way through as well.

[Gwen]

i have a similar book (Amazon.com: Your Fertility Signals: Using Them to Achieve or Avoid Pregnancy Naturally (9780961940102): Merryl Winstein: Books) that uses the same method... i agree it's a must read for every woman over the age of 16.... i even have Luna Fertility (i seem to recall it being cheaper when i bought it, but still worth it)... combining that with the info from the book there is no reason that wouldn't work perfectly...

i got all this after baby #3... i really liked the info and though didn't really like the daily charting etc thought it was well worth it. it would be my preferred method...

except...

the caveat to those systems is you do have to have your husband's support... your husband has to be willing to read it all, understand it and support you... he has to see your fertility cycle as his as well... a joint situation to be approached as a couple and team..... unfortunately i don't have that support, thus baby #4 and turning to other options....

[BenRaines]

How about he gets his little tubes tied. Problem solved.

Ben Raines

[Guest Alana]

A ob/gyn in the clinic I go to had an IUD back in the day and is now infertile because of it, but she is a huge supporter of them now. I think that shows how much they've changed as far as safety goes.

The main reason I don't like them is because if I decide I don't want it anymore, I need to physically go and do something to get it out, as apposed to doing nothing with other forms, as in just stop taking a pill or shot or whatever the method may be.

[Jenamarie]

How about he gets his little tubes tied. Problem solved.

Ben Raines

Amen to that. It always bugs me when men put the full weight of birth control on the shoulders of the woman in the relationship. There are very few reliable methods that don't do SOMETHING artificial to the woman's body (pills, shots, patches, IUD's etc.). And then if they fail the woman gets to go through the hormone-raising, body-shifting, extremely-uncomfortable rigors of pregnancy and delivery. If he's sure he doesn't want any more kids, and you've already jumped through enough hoops to try to make that possible, and none of them are working, it's time for HIM to take on the responsibility of HIS part of the choice to not have any more kids and see about getting the big V. If he balks at that, asking him why he insists on YOU doing something that he himself is so adamantly against.

Just my two cents.

(from she who has an IUD as a compromise with my DH: if at the end of 5 years we still don't have the "baby itch" he'll be getting the Big V)

[Gwen]

thank you for your replies. i guess i need to talk to hubby some more and just make a decision. if it's my lone responsibility then i guess it's my lone decision......

[RachelleDrew]

Just for the record, I have Mirena and love it. I got pregnant on Depo (so much for that...) So Mirena was

my only option left.

It didn't hurt to get it put in, and i did have spotting for almost three months afterwards. But once that stopped, no periods at all. My husband said that he could feel it sometimes, but it was rare and it wasn't

really painful or annoying.

So far I really like it! But some of my friends haven't been as lucky with IUD's.

[MorningStar]

Hi, Gwen. Well, I'll share this experience, but it's not a good one. Less than two years ago, my sister-in-law's IUD almost killed her. She ended up in severe pain that they originally thought was appendicitis, her stomach swelled up so bad it looked like she was pregnant, and when they opened her up, it took 12 liters of saline to clean her out. She came very, very close to death and doesn't remember conversations she had with any of us while she was in the hospital or soon after. Now she is having trouble with her heart - as if she is being shocked when she participates in her usual physical activities. It was been very hard on her.

Of course, there is risk with everything, but after what she went through, I could never recommend it to anyone. Good luck with your decision. :)

[Guest dec2057]

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Edited August 15, 2009 by dec2057
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[Jenamarie]

The Mirena IUD is a hormonal IUD that releases the same hormones as the pill to supress ovulation. There is no "baby murder" going on.

[Guest dec2057]

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Edited August 15, 2009 by dec2057
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[hordak]

My son is an IUD baby. The Copper didn't work for us.

[taotad]

This sounds like more of a marital issue than one of trying to decide if an IUD is right for you. From your posts, it seems that you've already become comfortable with the idea of a copper IUD, but because you lack support from your husband, you are questioning your decision.

I know this isn't a popular standpoint in our culture, but it is your body. It sounds like you and your husband both are in agreement to avoid another pregnancy. Since that decision is made, the way that you go about avoiding the pregnancy should be your choice, as it is your body that is in question.

If you are not in agreement that you are done having children, the issue is goes much deeper than what kind of birth control you will use.

[annamaureen]

I really wanted an IUD, but the attempted insertion was so agonizing that I was literally sobbing in pain. I'll try it again after I have kids!

[cougarfan]

My friend got pregnant while using an IUD. It was a disaster.

But that was a few years ago. Maybe they have improved the technology. I would vote for either a vasectomy or total abstinence.

[Guest Alana]

Total abstinence?!?!?! That's insane. I want to stay happily married:)

[Bini]

Total abstinence?!?!?! That's insane. I want to stay happily married:)

I think his/her point was simply: if you don't want a pregnancy here are your options (1) and (2), both of which, are completely fool proof!

But I'm with ya, Alana :]