Just have to share this story... It's a female issue and may be TMI but hey what ever right?

In My Humble Opinion
1

May be a little boring, and TMI but i just wanted to tell someone this story.

I got an IUD put in about 4 years ago… I actually had to fight for it because the physician that I had first refused but wouldn’t tell me why so I went to a GYNO that would put it in, he didn’t have any issues in the first place with it. After getting it put in, Which by the way was painful (although according to that wonderful doctor, my pain tolerance must be low… yeah not really but whatever i guess.) I found out that doctors normally refuse to put an IUD in a woman who has never had children because of the fact that the cervix is not open… My doctor neglected to tell me that, then I had horrible cramping for two moths after so, naturally, i called my doctor thinking that my IUD decided to take a tour of my body without my permission (very disrespectful in my opinion :P) my doctor told me that it was contractions and it’s normal since I was going from a hormonal based birth control to a non hormonal based IUD… “Ok, when will the cramping stop?” (legitimate question I thought) “Give it a month, you’ll be fine.” (he sounded irritated). so i gave it a month ring ring “My cramps seem to be getting worse, I thought they were supposed to stop after a month… what’s going on? something is wrong!” “No no, you’re just over exaggerating you’re cramps, but come on in and we will make sure nothing is wrong.” so I go in to the doctors again, they want to do an ultrasound…

this is how that went… “well you’re IUD seems to be in place…” (as I am thinking “I think I might pee myself if you press any freaken harder!”) she continues with… “And it doesn’t look like there is a baby, so your IUD is working just fine, now you can go to the restroom and empty your bladder so we can make sure everything is fine.” FINALLY I think I was in there while she was pressing down on my bladder for 15 minutes showing my bf at the time and me the ultrasound… (btw those things make no sense to me WHEN I HAVE TO PEE! especially since I was in the waiting room, having to pee, for 30 minutes before this crap!) so then I go to the bathroom empty the bladder and go back to the exam room, lay back down on that ungodly uncomfortable table, so she can put that cold wand back on my stomach… i swear they put those things on ice while you’re not looking, and the first thing she says… "I told you to empty your bladder.’ “I did?” “No you didn’t, you need to empty it fully not partially.” (apparently she though I enjoyed this process while urine was in my bladder… huh) so I listened to her pretty much tell me that I don’t know how to pee correctly for the next 10 minutes while she made sure there really wasn’t a baby and my IUD WAS in fact in place… “well you’re not pregnant and your IUD is in place so there is nothing wrong with you… except that you need to empty your bladder when you go to the bathroom.” (at this point I am mentally counting how much money I have and how much I love my freedom… I just wanted to punch her.) so I go home, with a perfect bill of health… sure…

A couple months later the cramps STILL aren’t gone… I wasn’t going to call that doctor back though so I called another one. I actually paid to talk to him about taking me off the IUD and putting me back on a hormonal based birth control… at this point I had looked up every possible thing that could be causing all of my problems (one of which is endometriosis, which hormonal based IUD’s hide)… and I told him that I wanted to figure it out… but the only option he gave was switching my birth control… I went home and stayed there.

now, four years later, my mom brought me to see her physician… she said he is good and he will get to the bottom of it… after four years of cramps where at times I couldn’t move… I will trust my mom. so I go in the room, my mom sitting next to me, on her phone… and me talking to the nurse, then the doctor… I didn’t think this one through… (I have a close relationship with my mom… buuuuutttt i don’t know if it is THAT close yet… those questions were a little out of the comfort zone on my end) My mom, being the trooper that she is, made sure the doc guy knew what needed to be done and that endo runs in our family. of course I learned more things about my wonderful IUD during this visit as well… none of which did I like… (good thing I was already planning on taking it out.) so this physician says “The first thing I want to do is take out your IUD, we have to figure out if that is the cause of the problems, then we go from there. So you will not be on any birth control until after your monthly, ok?” “as long as this gets fixed” so he leaves the room to find someone to take out my IUD then comes back a little while later… “SOOOOOO we COULD possibly take it out today if you want me to do it.” “ok…?” “would you like to know how many I have taken out before this?” (hmmmm… do I really?’) “zero?” “yeah” “well good thing you only have to pull a string huh?” So he leaves to get the nurse to oversee it all and she comes in and gets stuff ready… (apparently, the room I am in, isn’t really used much, it wasn’t stocked at all.) so after stocking (15-20 minutes) i take my pants and underwear off… (now we are getting to the fun stuff…) and I wait… with an over sized paper towel over my lap and a piddle towel under my butt. the physician comes back in and and I put my butt to the edge and my feet in the stirrups. He then puts that wonderful plastic tube up where, personally, it is not comfy… then i hear this “what the? this thing is being difficult…” (oh god help me!) then “have you ever been told anything about a retrograde uterus?” “no?”… then nothing… (WTF IS A RETROGRADE UTERUS???) then i hear “Uh Oh… I am going to need to get the other physician.” “Why? What’s wrong?” “I can’t find the string.” (craaaaaaaaaaaaaaap) I did NOT want to get cut open… I hate needles and knives… I am pretty sure that 60 degree room turn into a 100 degree room with in seconds. so he takes out the vagina toy (not the fun kind.) and i cover back up while he looks for the other guy…

He comes back with his vag looker buddy “so i hear there was a problem, John can’t find the string?” the only comment I can think to say is this… “well atleast he knows where the hole is” (yeah I said it) they all laughed… so the second guy puts yet another torture clamp in my crotch… after a few clicks and a little uncomfortable pressure, (and of course a few “you need to relax” comments, while the first physician is making me laugh.) physician 2 says to physician 1 “there it is… see it now” 1 says “oh yeah there it is” then looks at the nurse… “see?” as he is pointing between my legs… so i not only have one guy looking in my crotch not TWO people but THREE people are looking at all my girly stuff… (I CAN’T EVEN LOOK! WHY SHOULD THEY BE ABLE TO!!! :p) (oh and to add to all this… my mom is still sitting in the corner of the room on her phone… i’m a little worried that pictures or video might have been taken at this point… lol) so he says to me “I’m sorry if it hurts but it should be over with shortly” “eh” (it only hurt for like 10 seconds.) done and done. they all leave to let me get dressed and a few moments later the first one comes in and explains what all I have to do and asks if I want to take some pain killers then… “nope I am good. the pain is already gone.” so i leave with a prescription for an anti inflammatory and STILL nothing about what the heck a retrograde uterus is… I googled it… it sounds like fun. So now I have to go back in the next few days or so to check if I have Endo or if it is pelvic inflammatory disease… (i can’t wait for this part!!! maybe there will be MORE people to look down in my south!)
And what lesson did I learn here? Don’t get an IUD or anything without knowing the basics of it or anything about it. And if you can’t seem to get doctors to listen… mom is always helpful there lol

2

Ok, so I was pretty certain I’d never get an IUD before this, now I’m positive. When I went to Planned Parenthood a couple of months ago, they were REALLY pushing Mirena and I kept saying now. I wanted Depo. They pushed Mirena a bit more and finally relented when I said I’d see how I felt when I came in for my 3 month shot. That’s hopefully gonna happen sometime next week and I’ll see how much they push it. Ugh, the idea of something permanently up my lady bits isn’t pleasant at all.

3

Personally, after having used Depo for years, I adore my Mirena IUD. My work hours didn’t coincide well with doctor’s hours, and having to burn four vacation days a year just to have a 2 minute appointment to get my shot was killing me. I’ve been blissfully period (and associated symptoms) free for years and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

The only cramping I’ve ever had was having rowdy happy fun time. Things get jostled a bit too much, some mild cramping may result. Although that stopped happening the longer I’ve had it, too.

4

SiL and her mother both have retrograde uteruses; it affects things such as preferred sexual positions and I imagine it would mean that a IUD needs to be put in “backwards” as well. SiL’s Mom was diagnosed and told she’d never have children.

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“So where did the two I have come from? I don’t think I pulled them up from under a cabbage!”

5

What Queen Tonya said - I freaking love my Mirena IUD, and one story of a crappy doctor shouldn’t put someone else off from it. That being said, I’m sorry the OP went through such bullshit, and you need to find a doctor who has a clue and can communicate better with patients.

  1. Your doctor should have told you a lot more about the IUD before offering it to you. I had trouble getting one until my late 30s, and I got a whole lot of education about it once I got a doctor who’d perform it.
  2. Yes, doctors don’t like to put them in women who haven’t had babies before. That’s because they stuff it through the cervix, and nulliparous (never had a baby) women have smaller cervixes. A good doctor will recommend pre-dosing with a medication like Motrin as well as a medication that will dilate the cervix. (I’m nulliparous and my post-insertion “cramps” were mild enough that I walked to a nearby restaurant and had lunch and some beer right afterwards.)
  3. Yes, some more serious cramping than that may occur - it may need to shift into place in your uterus, or your uterus may freak out for a few days or so and then calm down. Those cramps were absolutely caused by the IUD, and your doctor should have damned well known that. It should have come out much sooner than four years.
  4. These docs should have told you more about your retroverted uterus. It’s good that they were that upfront about their lack of knowledge on the procedure, but you should not have been given a medical term and sent on your way.

My mother had one of the old infamous Dalkon shields, and had severe pain and bleeding the night of insertion. She saw her doctor the next day, and he said it must have been expelled, since it was gone. It was expelled all right - right through the wall of her uterus and stuck in the outside of it, and they didn’t find it until her hysterectomy! :eek: Yet I was quite eager to have my IUD put in, and for me it’s been lovely. No period for two years, and it shut off my migraines as well.

6

Welcome to the SDMB, Emmyann88. We put different kinds of threads in different forums, and medical threads (anecdotes, advice, and requests for diagnoses) go in IMHO, so I’ll move this there for you (from MPSIMS).

7

< Back in 1995 I had a small pea sized lump that suddenly grew over the period of a month into a ping pong ball sized lump :eek: so I hied self to my gyn who immediately got another 10 or so doctors and specialists involved in touring my hoohaa [among various investigations they needed to see if the lump was isolated or was involved in multiple layers of tissues to decide exactly what kind of surgery was going to be involved.] This being a military hospital, the doctors didn’t find it amusing when I mentioned that the tag team spelunking was the most action I had seen since my husband went to sea though a couple of the independent duty corpsmen being trained found it hysterical.>

Actually I am a paid medical guinea pig, and have gotten much of my medical care at a couple different hospitals associated with medical schools [Strong Memorial and Yale-New Haven] so it is not uncommon for me to end up being a training aid and being seen by tag team doctors or other medical staff. When I had my cardiac stress test this past summer parts of it were picked to be used in a class for ultrasound techs.

If you really want to see tag team doctoring at its best, try having something unusual or going to a training hospital. Two doctors? Psh … The time in 95 was my personal best so far … though to see a medical team emulate a beehive attacked by a bear, try popping 210/190 blood pressure to really get a medical team hopping!

8

My experience with the Mirena IUD was also horrible. I had severe abdominal cramping and they gave me a very painful transvaginal ultrasound but said nothing was amiss with the IUD but they couldn’t tell if it was endometriosis. I bled and cramped on and off for a year before I finally made it to another gyn, who said I wasn’t spotting, it was my cervix that was inflamed and bleeding, and removed it immediately (to my great relief.)

Last year I was diagnosed with presumed endometriosis (both my mother and grandmother had hysterectomies because of it) so I’m not sure if that might have complicated things. I have tried 18 million kinds of BC to deal with the pain and PMDD and the only thing that has ever worked is a continuous BC - I’ve been on Seasonale/Jolessa for almost a year now and I can’t even believe the difference. I never have a placebo week so I just never have a period. I don’t know if you’ve tried that but ever since going on the Jolessa even my IBS has gone away.

9

my doctors in the past should have told me about the retrogade uterus and the one that took my IUD out probably forgot since he couldn’t find the string and got worried right after asking about it. for those who are talking about the Mirena, I have hear wondeful and horrible things about it but I didn’t have the mirena I had the peragaurd. As for my cramps being because of my IUD. That’s not true I still have cramps even after it was taken out. My doctor is going to be do tests soon to see if it is endo or pelvic inflammatory.

If you have never had kids before… I would suggest that you don’t get an IUD. I was on the depo for nine months when I was 19-20 but I gained a lot of weight from it but that isn’t always the case for everyone.

10

the doctor that put mine in did NOT use anything (numbing agent included) and after putting it in I could barely stand because of the cramping and he kept telling me that I have a low threshold for pain… I got a kidney infection not long after and I didn’t realize it because the cramps at that point were normal to me. My bf at the time MADE me go to the ER and the ER doc ended wide eyed after I peed in a cup. My kidney infection was THAT bad. If I wouldn’t have gone in when I did I wouldn’t be alive now. The doctor actually asked me how I walked through the door or even waited so long to go in because I shouldn’t have been able to walk at that point, I should have been in too much pain… Hmmm reall low threshold for pain huh?:dubious:

11

I don’t want to go on BC at all anymore. My bf and I are actually talking about having children and I am pretty sure that wont be easy on it’s own let alone with BC so I will deal with the pain for a little while longer… Just want my little girl to be running around my house first lol

12

I’m not going to read all the details of this thread, but I’ll add my anecdote:

My wife had an IUD for many years. My own doctor asked what kind of birth control I used, so to see his reaction I said “None”. He started to freak and I said, “But my wife has an IUD”. Then he freaked about that. I told him to save his breath, it wasn’t something I had a say in.

13

I’m glad it’s working out for you, but I’ve heard too many horror stories about shit going wrong with Mirena that I’m not even going to try. The worse I’ve heard about Depo is ‘omg I gained like 5 pounds!’. I can deal with that just fine. I don’t even really NEED birth control. I just like not having a period :smiley:

14

Well, I hated depo with the fire of a thousand suns. I gained a ton of weight and fell into a horrible depression. Progesterone and I do NOT get along.

15

I wish more doctors would get themselves educated about this. Retroverted uterus occurs in about 20-30% of women and doesn’t, by itself, affect fertility. I can understand lay people still believing it causes sterility but doctors? C’mon, get with it.

16

I took Depo for over a year. It literally almost killed me, because I got so depressed I almost committed suicide. (It worked great for my endo pain though!) And yeah, the weight gain… the Jolessa does not seem to have reversed that, either. It has been a struggle for me just to keep from gaining more weight.

17

The story of the OP is just awful. When I got Essure last year, I had a wonderfully knowledgable doctor who explained everything that was going to happen, including the fact that the whole thing would be a bit more awkward since I never had children. Every question I asked, he answered. And this doctor was at a fertility clinic, and still never once made me feel bad about becoming infertile.

Your doctor sucks, OP, and I highly recommend you get a new one.

18

In fairness, the anecdotes were from a prior generation - it’s quite possible that our parents’ generation was told that.

Retrograde / retroverted uterus here (though no IUD experience), and fairly little trouble conceiving, fortunately.

19

My IUD went traveling out a fallopian tube. This was discovered at my post-insertion checkup. I had to have immediate surgery before it damaged some important part of my innards. The scar is huge, slicing all the way across my lower abdomen. The only good thing about that is that for my several other surgeries, they didn’t have to worry too much about causing a scar, they just followed the general track of that first one.

20

I’m on my second Mirena IUD and have that retro/tilted uterus thing. The IUD goes in as normal, doesn’t change a thing.

The cramping is because they have to dilate the cervix prior to insertion. This is painful and mimics labor pain. It takes a minute (a term I use for “any length of time”) for the cervix to close back up; thus the cramping. The reason IUDs are allegedly contraindicated for non-moms is the danger of uterine perforation. It’s not the cervix that gets stretched out, it’s the uterus, which doesn’t return to pre-baby size after the first birth. Almost, but not quite.

Sounds like you went to a GP/family doc and not a specialized OB/gyn, or the dude could just be not very good. I dunno.

What stuns me is any time I go in to see any sort of doctor and the intake person asks for my DMP (date of last menstrual period) and I say I can’t remember because I have an IUD and only spot occasionally… how could there still be medical professionals out there, who are working with patients every single day, and I am the first person who told them that my BC stops my periods? Really? You’ve never heard of Depo, Seasonal, Mirena IUDs? None of those? I bet 1/3 of all women who are on birth control are on some form that minimizes or completely stops periods. How are these intake people missing all those? I had one guy – a doc in a box type place where people just stream in and outta there – who blinked in shock and told me he’d never heard of such a thing and something must be seriously wrong with that. I told him to set up the goddamn x-ray for my broken toe and we can just let me OB/gyn worry about my girly bits and whether all that is functioning properly.