More on Mirena Side Effects

(Boring for everyone not considering a mirena.)

I had a hell of a week--really an emotional roller coaster.  The election plunged me into a despair I haven't felt since the 1994 election.  I handled 2004 better than this.  I'm sure the dumping didn't help, but I was far worse than I expected.  It was so bad, I actually rescheduled a date that I had agreed to on Sunday, before the phone call, because I didn't feel ready to meet someone new.

 And then I got my period 3 days early.  So I blame the Mirena.

FWIW, Dotty is an MD, and she said she has noticed a lot more side-effects with hormonal implants than have been reported.  Also, multiple friends have noticed their sex drives go away.  (I do not have a single female friend, who got the mirena, who reports a healthy sex drive.)

For me, the effects have been a lot more widespread than that.

My emotions on the Mirena were a very even keel.  Things seemed relatively easy, but things were also deadened.  I didn't have any panic moments, or crippling fear, but Beethoven's 9th didn't move to me tears.

The 6 weeks since I took it out, my emotions have been more mercurial than they were before I got the darn thing. I thought that the 26-year-old was someone I could fall in love with, a feeling I haven't had for a very long time. I found myself singing when I walked along the shore.  I really felt a lot of joy.  But I'm also having far more extreme reactions to negative things.  Both anxiety and sadness are really amplified.  I think within another month or two, my emotions should be back to pre-Mirena normal, but it was far more extreme than I expected.  And I didn't really notice the emotional changes while it was in because it came on really slowly: eh, I'm bored with music; eh, none of the men I go out with are interesting; eh, I don't really care about anything enough to need to blog much. It didn't happen at all once, but in hindsight, I'm surprised how much it affected me.

Periods on the Mirena were not only regular for the day, they came at the same time every day.  I had no cramps, no PMS and they only lasted for 3 very light days.  Now that I've taken it out, my periods haven't been regular for either month.  Last month was so heavy, it was sort of scary.  Like 'emptying-my-diva-cup-every-half-hour.'  At one point, I thought about going to the doctor's office--I was losing so much blood.  When I first got it, I bled for an entire month, but then it was actually great for reducing my periods.

I would not recommend the Mirena, but it also makes life easier, if more boring.  I would consider trying the copper one, but I really think hormonal birth control has a pretty darn huge impact on emotions that has not been well researched or reports.  There is a question as to whether it is better to feel less, both joy and pain, but I'm on the side of feeling more.