To think if I want a mirena coil removed, it should be removed?

[Momentumista]

I had the face 'well...no I don't think we'd want to be removing it yet' routine when make appt to ask. Was told 'Come back in 6 months when it's settled'... etc etc

This is not a 'how was the coil for you' thread as I know some people love it and swear by it, but really I know my own body by now and I know how I feel and I was

(a) crazy;
(b) gaining weight while eating the same;
(c) spotty as hell (really nasty acne);
(d) depressed;
(e) migraines;
(f) just feeling really heavy and uncomfortable.

And yet while presenting all of these symptoms I get told they will settle and migraines are not dangerous.

I pulled the bloody thing out myself and am already feeling better (1 week on) and skin is clearing, and lo and behold the jeans I could not get anywhere near done up are now done up.

I am really disappointed not to have been listened to though. WIBU to take matters into my own hands?

With apologies for a Fail link, this is an interesting article.

I pulled mine out myself too. Very easy and I was incredibly uncomfortable with and had ended up in hospital thinking I had an infection.

'I really hope I'm not in for a fight.'

'I remove my consent for this treatment. It's not working for me. It needs to be removed.

'How about you give it another month. It might settle'

'Did I not communicate clearly? I no longer consent to having this device in my body. Are you telling me I have to submit to treatment I no longer consent to and leave a foreign object in my body that I no longer want there because it is making me ill?'

If the answer is 'yes', you need to complain immediately and request referral to somewhere and someone who will remove it.

My GP was very very very pushy for me to have a coil.
I kept saying that I have had awful side effects with every pill I've been on and cerezette was the worst but she wouldn't listen.
She also said the effects were probably in my mind.
They weren't.
Within 2 weeks after stopping them I'd dropped a stone, my hair was growing back, my boobs stopped hurting, my cramping vanished, my face wasn't swollen and I'd stopped screaming like a banshee at every annoyance.
I was told to give cerezette a year.
Stupidly i listened and had the worst year of my life.

Great responses, Expat.

Not had a coil but had an implant which was a pain to get removed.
I had it in for two years but we had decided I wanted another baby.
Receptionist couldn't make an appointment to have it removed. I had to speak to the doctor. I kept missing the doctors call and then they didn't have a nurse that could do it as they were both of sick. Ended up getting it done at the family planning clinic in the end as could get an appointment there fairly easier.
You should have to justify getting it taken out. I had a lot of spotting to begin with which was annoying but was told to stick with it. I actually feel so much now it has been taken out but would rather use something I have control over.

EstelleRoberts that link just so confirms what's being said on here. £70 per coil and fewer repeat visits all being well must seem like quite an incentive for GPs. You can really see the change these devices have wreaked on the two women in the pictures. They're still attractive women but their whole body shapes seem different. Also look pretty anemic.

Thanks expat I feel well armed now!

And if they pull the 'Want to swap to a Mirena whilst you're here?' you say, 'No. I don't want anything inserted into me.' And repeat as necessary. 'Any reason why?' 'Yes, I have reasons. They're not a matter of discussion.' 'What will you use for contraception?' 'That's something my husband and I need to discuss together.' 'Well, you can get pregnant once this coil is out.' 'I'm aware of that.' and just don't elaborate. It's not why you're there. You're there to get treatment that is not working for you terminated.

Keep it very short and don't elaborate. It's not their business. You're there to get treatment that is not working for your terminated.

Sadly, sometimes you have to play their game right back at you. Treat me like a child/silly woman/ignorant and you will get the same back. I'm polite and patient, but firm. 'It's not matter that's up for discussion.'

I asked my gp to remove mine in June as it reached the end of it's useful life according to the 'must be removed by xxx date' card; it was actually due to be removed in March. I was told there was a waiting list as there is a specialist at the surgery who does it, should hear in 6 weeks. Waited and waited, am having further investigations for other symptoms (that I've recently discovered can be caused by mirena).

Called the surgery on Friday to chase up after reading this thread, to be told that my name had been taken off the waiting list! The receptionist said that she could see that I'd been on the list way back in June but couldn't explain why I'd been taken off.

I've got an appointment next Tuesday to get it removed. Wonder if my other symptoms will go when it does?

expat we'll be ttc in a year or so but I've no intention of telling them that. It's my uterus and I'm old enough to take responsibility for it. Appreciate your responses

But perfumed I don't think a woman should have to prove that she is 'desperate' and I don't think a GP should be trying to 'encourage' her to keep something inside her body when she has asked for it to be removed. It should be enough for the woman to calmly state that she wants it out and that should be respected. Fair enough for the GP to make sure she has all the information to make her decision, but that doesn't sound like what is going on here. There seems to be a strong element of pressure.

About other hormonal contraception - I was prescribed the pill at 15 for bad acne and was on it for about 10 years, which had a profound effect on me. I was not properly warned about the side effects and not capable at that age of fully understanding them anyway. I ended up with significant MH problems. After I stopped taking it, it was like the sun came over the world. It was like discovering a new sense of smell. I had no idea what kind of person I actually was. I finally found out what a 'libido' was. All of my friends who have taken hormonal contraception have similar stories and have sworn that we will never take it again. This is a massive problem! There is no way, no fucking way, that this would be done to a man, as evidenced by the halted trials linked to above. Makes me so angry.

I wonder if this new guidance will stop those gynes from dictating that patients should have a coil before any surgical procedure.

"Lady Hale, one of the judges, also said that doctors must not discuss one particular treatment over other possible options. “It makes a lot of sense but we have never really done that,” said Hamilton. “We tell patients about a particular option and get them to sign the form.”

www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/27/patients-must-understand-options-royal-college-surgeons

I had to ask for it to be added to my own records NOT to ask me to have Mirena based on prior, very negative experience before I experienced child loss and a child with SN. I developed very serious low mood on that thing, which disappeared after it was removed, on top of constant bleeding, complete loss of libido and cystic acne that left my face scarred. If I develop period problems during perimenopause, it is simply not an option for me primarily due to the mental health issues I have following these two major upsets in my life. Any gynae who tried it on would be sent to my psychiatrist.

when I queried side effects I got told it was one of the best because it was so localised, the effects wouldn't affect the rest of the body

I got told that too. It was bullshit for me, as well. So glad to see the back of the fucking thing. My awesome, awesome gynae took it out for me.

My mirena came out in a giant blood clot post gynae surgery when I was in hospital. I was severely anaemic, had blood poisoning and was bleeding heavily from my vagina.

The gynae consultant on shift came around on their rounds and I explained what was going on. His first sentence back to me was

"Well we can fit you a new mirena today."

I replied "my husband is not coming to visit this afternoon to impregnate me, so I suggest that you get a plan together to deal with the real problems I have."

"But, you need a long term contraceptive solution Ms Darling."

Through gritted teeth, "sex is the furthest thing from my mind whilst you are pumping me with iv antibiotics. I will discuss options with my husband when I recover from this major surgery and septicaemia."

Doc and observing students scurried away from the nasty sick woman. Nurse leans and and says "nice one" before chuckling and moving away.

I will not be having another mirena.

Many women in the US remove their.own coils, as did I. It is nothing more than removing a tampon. Very straightforward.

Hmm. I'm on my 2nd mirena - my first was fitted (very roughly) by a surgeon following another gynae procedure, and although I had a 10 year history of migraines, which was why I was no longer on the pill, nobody actually asked me that question.

I had terrible problems for the first 3 or 4 months - extreme twisting pain, bleeding etc - and mentioned it to my GP during an appointment about my migraine medication. My migraines hadn't worsened, I hadn't put on any more weight than usual, my moods were up and down but I take an old tricyclic anti depressant anyway.

He shrugged and said that if it wasn't working for me, just make an appointment with the nurse and she would whip it out for me. As it happens, I stuck with it and now it's fine. In fact I had mine changed DURING a migraine...that was nice. So it has never been pushed on me, I wasn't discouraged from having it removed, and no gp has ever suggested any contraindications with migraines.

This thread is such depressing reading....

What further depresses me, other than women being dismissed as per, is that the migraines and heavy bleeding that lead to the coil suggestions could infact be organic in cause, like pernicious anemia or somesuch. Why have we fallen into this state where migraines are a coil deficiency? They're clearly not! We need to go back to discovering the root cause and solving that, not shoving plastic bits of tat in to our most intimate areas and expecting miracles!

BillyDaviesDaughter bloody well done you by the way! That took guts when you must have felt absolutely shit!

Sorry meant Iamnotdarling

I refused the Mirena but agreed to an Essure sterilisation. Its been hell. I am in pain ten days a month and have been on blood clotting pills for ten months to stop the flooding during my periods. Last time I went to a gynae I was told a sixth of women have pelvic pain with no cause. I suggested it was the Essure but it was completely ignored and I was given painkillers to deal with the pain. The manufacturers booklet includes chronic pain as a side effect but that was not on my consent form. No one told me when I agreed to the procedure. After reading this thread I am even more determined to get the bloody things out. It would be great to know if bayer pays incentives for essure as well. Its so depressing that minty got defensive. I wish they will listen more to patients.

Sorry to hear about the essure I have heard and read awful things about that. From what I've read of the situation with that in USA looks like it's going to lose its licence there.