Worried about getting the mirena fitted Wednesday

[Ren95]

Hey ladies I'm due to have the mirena coil fitted Wednesday to help with my endo pains. However I am very nervous and from looking online a bit skeptical. I am just looking for some advice and peoples experiences

[Impatient]

The pain of getting it put in can be too much is you do have endo.

You are entitled to have the procedure done with painrelief and anaesthetic too.

It is unlikely your GP will tell you this, but nevertheless if it is too much pain stop the process and insist on being referred to a hospital gynae unit for the procedure to be done with anaesthetic.

It is your right to have that, but the NHS do not like it because they get paid a bonus payment for every patient they can carry out these procedures on without pain relief.

As for the mirena itself. The settling in months before it does stop periods can give yousome niggles and side effects, weird cramps and odd bleeding. I can only say - do your level best to put up with that, because it really is well worth it in the end and it will not always be that way.

4-6 months and the periods should be stopped. The cramps should not be anywhere near as bad as a period cramp which I am sure you will be used to having, and they don't last long.

Over the early weeks the mirena causes the cervix to produce lots of extra cervical mucus which acts as a plug holding the mirena in place so it is much less likely to fall out or jiggle about at all.

At the same time the hormones are thinning out the menstrual lining that grows and sheds as a period. at some point very soon, that will be so thin, that you won't have a period.

I know it sounds like a long way off but really 4-6 more periods in time is worth getting through for up to 5 years being period free.

Even if your period is only 1 week in every 4, that's 13 weeks extra a year or over 3 months each year being free of periods and able to so what you want. It could be a lot more time you get back if your periods last more than 7 days as a rule.

Without a shadow of doubt it transformed my life. No understatement there. My periods were up to 3 weeks at a time for years and erratic too, i would have no idea how long i wouldget between bleeding ending and the next bleed starting.

It stopped PMT moods too. Cleared up spotty skin, bets of all ofcourse no period pains and no gushing messy bleeds. Saved a lot in pain killers, tampons and towels, laundry, and curled up in bed unable to do anything.

For the size of the thing, I a mightily impressed. mine was put in under a general anaesthetic and I have had it 3 years. I will be getting a new oneput in to replace this one when it runs out of steam. And it will be done with anaesthetic.

Even having a smear test done I find so agonising that I need anaeasthetising. So main advice is if you do need it insist upon it evenif they don't have the means there to give you anaesthetic, they will be able to refer you to hosp to get it done.

Far better to do that than find yourself in absolute agony just trying to get it installed.

It doesn't hurt every one, it depends on the state of adhesions growing round the vagina and cervix to greater extent. When you have endo - this can be a significant issue.

Wishing you all the best and hope it is straight forward for you because once in and getting to work you more than likely be thrilled. Most mirena users are very happy and repeat users. They don't all sing and dance about it.

I have lots of female cousins, 3 of them had mirenas and we were chatting about it, and they were all delighted so I asked the surgeon if i could have it too, and I do have complications of a malformed uterus shape, so considerably smaller and sausage shaped compared to a normal uterus. The risks it wouldn't work were based on my anatomy, but I agreed to try it in any case.

Very glad I did. And even I cannot feel it, and I know it is squished up a sausage shaped tube, i've seen it on a scan. The only way i know it is there is because i dont have periods. not even spotting.

It is definitely worth trying and putting up with the settling in time.

[dabba76]

Hi Ren95

Impatient's post is as always very informative as always.

My current coil (my 3rd) was sprung on me at an appointment with the specialist so I had no time to take pain killers beforehand. It was not a pleasant experience but the whole procedure took about 5-10 mins. Everyone is different but if you relax during insertion and take pain killers an hour beforehand I would hope this would help.

I've had so many swabs/internal examinations/smears that I think I am used to them poking about down there. It's never pleasant but has to be done.

Hope you get on well x