My Mirena Experience

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This post is really personal, but I feel I need to say something about this matter.  A) Many things about me have been explained.  B) I may help someone reading this.  C) This is part of my journey, a major road in fact.  It is quite wordy, but is going to be soul-cleansing once it's out there.

February 2008, I made the decision to use Mirena, a form of birth control.  I'm usually not on top of taking a pill everyday, so I felt this was a better option for me.  My husband and I felt comfortable with waiting to expand our family.  I had read the information, online and in the pamphlet, numerous times.  The information given to me stated there would be minimal side effects, which only affected about 10% of Mirena users.

The first year, everything was terrific.  I became used feeling the device in my body, I was not having my period any longer, and I was pregnancy free.  Mirena had be won over.  I told everyone they should try it.  As the months passed, I began to feel tired and cloudy.  My husband had deployed to Iraq again, so I attributed this tiredness to being "a single parent" and stress related to deployments.  Then, I began noticing changes in my body and my emotions.  I felt bloated.  I couldn't sleep well.  I had been eating better and exercising, but not losing weight.  I was very irritable, depressive, snappy, basically unpleasant to be around.  I felt angry at my husband and child all the time.  I noticed dark, thick facial hair.  I had acne on my thighs... really?  This was too much.

The issues with my body I pushed to the side because my emotional well-being was the major issue.  After consulting with my doctor in October 2010, I was placed on Zoloft and Xanax.  The medication was to help manage my anxiety, stress, and depression.  I felt a weight start to lift off my shoulders.  My mood lightened, and I felt this was the answer.  I began working out again.  I was eating healthier.  I was working on Camp Moxie and the blog.  

In March of this year, my husband had returned from his most recent deployment.  I felt this would aid in the relief of my emotional warfare.  The problem became worse.  I was still battling all the issues with my body.  The medication was no longer curbing the darker emotions.  Something was really not right.

Last month, I had an awesome chat with a friend who's studying holistic medicine.  I told her what was going on with my body and it clicked that my problems must be from the Mirena, as I had stopped taking Zoloft and Xanax.  (These are pretty scary meds to be on.  Do read up on them if you are taking them.  Know what you're putting in your body!  Talk to your doctor.)  Sure enough, I looked up "side effects of Mirena", and up popped thousands of pages.  (This is the site I used in my decision making.)  I was feeling major side-effects.  All of which were described above were mentioned my lots of other women.  Before Mirena, I never had any of those issues.   Mirena had to come out.  

Last Thursday, Mirena came out.  Immediately, I felt the clouds back out of my brain.  I had my uterus back!!  I had my brain back!!  I cannot tell you how amazing this has been for me.  This explains why I haven't been able to focus on my blogging (which I love) and Camp Moxie (majorly in love with), and most importantly, I feel like I can be better for my family. 

 Now, I understand that some may not experience these symptoms.  Some may be rockin' with Mirena, but it affects everyone differently.  If you would like to talk about my experience with Mirena, please e-mail me.  This is a pretty sensitive subject for some, and if I can help you in any way, I'm here!  Thank you for letting me get this out.  Now, we're on to a magical new week!