I’m about to become an over-sharer today about all
things menstruation and being a woman.
So if you’d like, skip along to tomorrow’s post.
“Never trust anything that bleeds for seven days and
doesn’t die.”
I’ve never had an issue with my periods. I’ve always been regular, fairly light, and
it’s never lasted that many days. Oh,
and no cramps! So, I’ve got nothing to
complain about in that department.
I went on birth control in college and was on it into
my 30s. A few years ago, my sister Jenny
had a blood clot that sent her to the hospital.
Jenny is adopted so her risk factors are different than mine but when we
were talking with the ER nurse about family planning, she suggested getting off
the birth control pills. She had seen
many women in their 30s come in after having a stroke, which can be one of the
links to birth control. While my risk
factors weren’t identical to Jenny’s, Kenyon and I had to make some decisions
as far as our future kids were concerned.
We were pretty sure we didn’t want kids so Kenyon got a vasectomy and I went off the pill.
Fast forward a few years later and since we weren’t
going to have any kids, I was tired of getting my period. I mean seriously, why do you have to bleed
each month when you aren’t planning to get pregnant. I checked in with my OBGYN a few times about
how soon I could start menopause (she said I was many years from that phase of
life) or what my options might be for stopping my period. She prescribed the “mini pill” which is a progesterone
only pill and wouldn’t have links to blood clots or stroke because it didn’t
contain estrogen. I took the mini pill
for a whole year and it never stopped my period. What was a little more concerning what that I
had two different months where my period was very heavy, which was not the norm
with me.
I had once again researched options for stopping your
period and my choices were getting an IUD or having ablation done. The second option sounded scary but I was at
least willing to talk it over more with my doctor. Insurance would pay for the IUD 100% and the
ablation would be cost me several hundred dollars out of pocket. So, my decision was to get the Mirena IUD
inserted last November. Mirena is also progesterone only so I didn't have to worry about the estrogen factor. I was nervous
and had my doubts about how bad the procedure was going to hurt. I had talked to some of my
girlfriends/coworkers who had one and also read up on several experiences
online.
Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. Since I had the couple months of wonky
periods, my doctor suggested also taking a sample of uterine wall while she was
inserting the IUD so it could be tested for cancer (all clear on the C-word). That is what hurt the worst. Then, the IUD came after and so it was
painful for sure. Bleeding was minimal
considering the nurse scared the crap out of me explaining how much blood was
enough to seek emergency attention. But,
nothing like that happened. I had made
sure I had the whole day off work, which I think was a great idea. That way I could go home and rest.
The days that followed were…interesting. It was like my body could tell I had foreign
object inside of me and it wanted it out.
Part of why I had not gotten an IUD before was because of the horror
stories of your body expelling the device, especially if you have not had
children. With my luck, I’d be the one person
that it would happen to. I had some
major doubts about a week after really questioning if I had made the right
decision. I had a lot of
itching/discomfort and after Googling the symptoms (FYI don’t do this), I read
all about infections and what-not so I was convinced I had made a mistake. The irritation got much better by my one
month follow-up appointment so I’m chalking it up to the healing process from
the snipping of the uterine wall as why it was all so uncomfortable.
The research I did ahead of time said the IUD was
successful in 7 out of 10 by significantly reducing and/or eliminating your
period. I had my doubts that I’d
probably be the 3 out of 10 that it didn’t work for. But, instead, I’m happy to report it has all
been going well. It has been four months
now since I had the IUD put in and only twice have I had any visible signs of a
period, all of which needed no more than a panty liner. I have super sensitive boobs and I they still
get tender once a month and that is about all the signs of Mother Nature
visiting.
The Mirena IUD is good for five years and my OBGYN
says I’ll love it. She shared with me
that she is on her third one. I’m still
a bit nervous/scared for when the time comes to remove it and put another one
in. I’ve heard/read horror stories that
it is quite painful. Thankfully I don’t
have to worry about that for a few more years.
The reason I share all this is because when I was
doing research of my own, I liked reading about other people’s
experiences. And while a lot of them can
be negative, my experience overall has been very positive. I really love that I don’t have to worry
about my period when we are on vacation.
There is nothing worse than Aunt Flo coming to visit when you are
relaxing on a beach. That is the number
one reason that I wanted to stop my period and why I chose the IUD.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
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