I looked through some of the existing threads about the Mirena IUD and didn’t see mention of this issue.
Since having my IUD placed in November, I’ve had at least two yeast infections. I’m prone to them in general, something about my body chemistry, but this seems a bit much. Anyone else with the IUD experience this as a side effect? Maybe something about the hormones?
If you’re “prone to yeast infections in general”, getting 2 in 5 months is probably not a statistically significant change.
Should’ve clarified. I normally might get 2 in a year, and usually I can identify what caused it such as having just been on antibiotics. In these cases I can’t identify a precursor.
I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself prone to yeast infections, I’d just get them whenever I took antibiotics in my twenties. No other times, but for years my doctor just automatically wrote me a monistat script to go with any antibiotic script.
However, I’ve used Mirena IUDs for almost nine years, and haven’t had a single yeast infection in that time. Concurrently, my kid is grown and not bringing home every stray germ from school anymore, so it’s very rare that I’m sick and need antibiotics.
I’ve never heard of any connection between the Mirena and yeast infections, might be worth talking to your doctor to find out if something else is going on.
That’s not statistically significant. With that said, why did you choose the hormonal IUD? There’s a copper one that is both more effective and has less known side effects.
Copper IUDs can cause heavier, longer, crampier periods which can be a real problem for women with low iron or bad periods to begin with. This is a huge problem for some women. I work in a sexual health clinic, and it’s not uncommon to have people come back to get their copper IUDs removed because the side effects are too hard on them. I had one woman who bled so badly during her period, she actually would get dizzy and have to hold onto walls for stability while walking
Effectiveness is not an issue, with both IUDs at 99% effective. The advantages to copper is that is a lot cheaper, can be used as emergency contraception and can be used by people who don’t want/can’t have hormonal birth control.
Mirena, however, can make you lose your periods, which is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
signed,
a happy mirena user.
I was going to explain why I have the IUD, but then I realized that’s not the point. Suffice it to say it was after a discussion with my gyno.
This isn’t about statistical significance either. I’m noticing increasing frequency since getting the IUD and wondering if anyone else has had that correlation. On the other hand, not getting my period has been pretty cool.
Getting the IUD placed, going off hormonal BC, changing your sexual habits, etc., can change the pH of your vagina, which can cause a tendency to yeast infections.