Is it my copper coil or ibs

[Lindsey24]

I had my copper coil fitted in March due my check up next week but obviously can’t do this. I have cramping pain in my lower abdomen. I don’t know if it is an issue with my coil or is an ibs flare up I can go days with no pain and then flares up ?

[Hidden]

Hello Lindsey,

It's quite common to experience abdominal cramps after a coil is fitted but they tend to subside after 1-2 weeks. I'm assuming you had an STI screen for gonorrhoea/chlamydia beforehand and the tests were clear.

To figure out whether the cramps are due to the coil or IBS, it might help if you could answer the following questions:

1. Before the coil was fitted were you experiencing these cramping pains or did these symptoms develop only after its fitting?

2. Are these pains associated with other IBS-type symptoms, such as gas, bloating or an alteration in bowel habit?

3. Have you noticed the frequency and character of these cramping pains subsiding?

4. Finally, have you noticed additional (gynae) symptoms, like painful sex, bleeding after sex and can you feel not just the thread/s, but part of the device protruding out of the cervix?

So if the pains came on soon after the coil was fitted but is gradually subsiding, it's probably just the coil and not the IBS. It should settle in time.

If your IBS is flaring up you'd probably expect to have other IBS-type symptoms.

But if the cramping pains are getting worse (more pain, more frequent) and you have any of the symptoms listed in 4., then you should contact the clinic that fitted your coil to arrange a coil check.

Hope this helps,

Adhari.