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?

Estelle it's disgusting and not in the spirit of the nhs at all.

Soubriquet fair enough you asked for it but sounds like gp's are not being honest about side effects or the ease of having it removed.

If it WAS being sold (ie patients were paying) I suspect there'd be uproar about the poor service,

Momentumista Hello, I really feel for you. I have just dipped in here, so I haven't read any of the other advice, I can only offer my own perspective.

I have a Mirena Coil, and my experience with it so far has been an absolute rollercoaster. All is fine now, 7 months down the line.

BUT since May this year, when I had it fitted, It has been a Hormonal Firestorm. I struggled to get out of bed every single day for the first four months (I am a very active and self-motivated person). I fell in to the blackest despair pit I have ever known (was bit prone to short bursts of PMS related depression on a monthly cycle basis), and genuinely felt absolutely suicidal (emphasis on felt here, would never contemplate suicide, I have children I love dearly).

During this time, I sat sobbing on the bathroom floor many times contemplating yanking the bloody thing out myself, when I wasn't scaring myself half stupid with all the online information I 'Googled', about the horrendous reactions some people have to it.

I now feel like I did in the Middle Trimester of my pregnancy. Very calm, hair glossy, my horrendous flooding periods have completely stopped, and I have lost the stone I immediately put on the minute I had the monster fitted. So, in short, hated it but stuck with it. My boobs have gone up a Bra size and hurt all the time.

It's definitely not for everyone, and anyone who forces you to stick with something alien in your body, that is messing up your physical and mental health, has not got your best interests at heart.

AND, Big Pharma definitely put profits before patients. We all know that these days ; x

I haven't read the entire thread but am responding just to the initial OPs post.

I've heard similar stories to this time and again and it really angers me. It's a hangover from the 50s and 60s when women were given Thalidamide - interestingly it wasn't given just to manage morning sickness, but was thought to have a beneficial effect on controlling how women went a bit 'loopy' when they were pregnant (to damp down their moods and keep them a bit more controllable - obviously from a (then) almost 100% male dominated doctor workforce).

I absolutely cannot understand how they can insert something inside your body and say that you have to keep it in!!! Sure, I can understand if it's a transplanted heart or a pacemaker but for God's sake, it's a coil. A coil they push and promote (VERY heavily) and then they want to leave you with the unpleasant after-effects? I honestly think being left with something inside your intimate body areas should actually count as assault if there's no good reason not to comply with your wish to remove it. And if it's a cost issue then that's got absolutely NO relevance, the decision making should be around clinical issues only.

All our contraceptive choices have side effects - annoyingly what works at one time of life doesn't work so well another time and everyone reacts differently to the same contraceptive so it's a total minefield for us women. But to refuse to take it out honestly, I'd personally be starting with a formal complaint to the Practice then take it to the CCG.

I do think this is actually a feminist issue and that it shows that this view persists that women are mentally deficient and cannot make decisions for themselves, treat them like dumbo's something equivalent to cows and ask them to wait and wait and wait 'until it settles down' and please be docile dear - oh there you go, being overly emotional again (just like you women always get). Sexist gits.

There's also women walking around with broken plastic inside their bladders having gone to their Dr for bladder continence issues - bet they were ignored too when they reported the agonising pain they were in because these rings were literally breaking into pieces inside them.

Sadly I don't think it's just confined to male Drs (although I'm sure they're the worst). If it's too costly for people to have them out within a certain period of time, don't bloody coerce women into having them! Der.

I wish I could take mine out myself, can't bloody find it.

Jeez sweetie, please please go for a check up though. They should have taken it out for you but you must make sure you haven't done any harm.

I resent being accused of lying about knowing the ins and outs of finances. You just have to trust me - when you factor in the appointments required to fit a coil, I could make more money offering other services, or spending my time doing audits etc which attract payments. The only reason we still fit coils at my practice is because we feel it would be unfair to make our patients travel to the family planning clinic.

I make it very clear to patients that there are potential side effects to coils, that they can be very unpleasant but usually pass after 6 months. Some people choose not to take the risk.

Most gynaecologists will refuse to do any surgical procedure (sterilisation, TCRE, hysterectomy, laser diathermy) until a Mirena coil has been tried, and many of the coils I fit are on the recommendation of a gynaecologist.

I don't recognise this theory that we GPs are just evil people desperate to shove coils into reluctant women. Quite frankly, fitting a coil is no fun at all and I'd be happy to never do it again!

I'm hiding this thread now because I'm weary of the doctor bashing, so I won't be replying to any nasty comments.

I had the implant after I had my second child. Hated it, it was awful, I got it taken out after 6 months, think they were annoyed but they did it. You don't know how it's going to affect you until you have one so it's not unreasonable to want it taking out if the side effects are unbearable!

Someone upthread mentioned everything becoming grey with the implant - yes to that! It was like being in a fog without feelings and most certainly without libido! I had no periods though, which was the only positive. Then afterwards my periods became so heavy that I would start to black out. Its like my body was making up for not having periods by making them all come at once. Dreading my periods coming back when I stop BFing.

Anyway, it took several trips to 2 different family planning clinics before it was removed but one doctor said something like "do you realise that without this implant you might get pregnant?! What will you do about an unwanted pregnancy?!"

I was in my early 30s at the time, married with a toddler, own home, job etc. I was actually wearing a suit because I had walked from the office. I thought I looked like the sort of person who would know her own mind but she talked to me like a promiscuous teenager.

Minty - I think posters are free to comment on both their experiences as they stand now, and for people like myself to comment on the wider issues about women being treated as potentially unhinged beings unable to make decisions for themselves and being treated a little bit like morons (by some Drs) when they want to take it out.

There are risk of horrendous side effects with all forms of contraception pretty much - anything where hormones are released into the woman's body or things inserted or tied off.

If the coil has been recommended as a step before a particular procedure I hope the patients concerned are 100% clear that this is the case (which from the sounds of things you very clearly do) and that barring a near death experience they need to commit to it for at least six months before they can progress to further consultant led treatment of the types you describe. And that's totally fair enough and they should go into it clear about how that all will work.

But even on that basis, there will still be some who just cannot hack the side effects for the period of time needed. They just find they can't go through it. It's totally unfortunate but can't be helped. And if they decide they want it to come out, then it needs to come out.

I don't think GPs are devils trying to shove coils in women but I've heard many anecdotal descriptions of fairly strong promotion of the coil - I've been offered it umpteen times (like it would be totally fine and dandy - not a word about the possible horrendous side effects) and I've always refused (just don't like the idea of it full stop) but I do think it's pushed, and in some cases, the GP (some) are a bit 'I know best and I'm going to minimise what can be absolutely appalling side effects and how they might affect your day to day life for months and months on end until it all stabilises and then when you come in to ask for it out at 4 months (that's a LOT of individual days feeling totally like shit) I'm going to refuse and try and force you to have it in for longer'.

And trying to convince the patient to keep it in if they had other severe gynaecological problems what would benefit from further treatment if only they could stay the course for 6 - 7 months would be right in those cases, I'm just wondering if some of the posters on here don't fall into that category so they're not trying to get to a particular goal, they just want a contraceptive - so if they want to have it out there's the wasted time and cost element but no other reason for them not to be allowed to have it out.

I just think that last post from mintychoc is a fairly good example of the arrogance patients are dealing with.

It's our bodies but god forbid we QUESTION the Drs motives

I am bemused at the accusation of 'doctor bashing' I must say.

Yes Graphista - I actually agree with you. There is this arrogance and their knowledge that they 'know best' - doesn't matter, it's still the patient's body and their choice.

But Mintychoc, I think the primary point people are trying to make is not that doctors are evil, but that THEY DO NOT GET TO MAKE THIS PARTICULAR DECISION.

It is not for a doctor to make. Regardless of that doctor's motivations. I would wager from what I know that the majority of women who have a coil installed wish to use it as a contraceptive device, not because they're on a waiting list for a particular gynae procedure.

For some, the side effects are utterly debilitating. Even for those for whom the side effects are nothing but an irritation, can you really not see the ethical issue with refusing their request to have a body and in some cases mind-altering foreign body removed?

Also, as with just about every demographic, doctors are not an homogenous body of beings. I have had doctors that brought up the coil and then never mentioned it again after I politely said it wasn't for me, and I've doctors that pushed like hellfire. I don't see why it should be so inconceivable that some doctors be found wanting.

'Most gynaecologists will refuse to do any surgical procedure (sterilisation, TCRE, hysterectomy, laser diathermy) until a Mirena coil has been tried, and many of the coils I fit are on the recommendation of a gynaecologist. '

I am really shocked by that. Why should women not get to choose, say, sterilisation, without being forced to have artificial hormones pumped into them first?

I'd be fucked, because I've tried Mirena already, for contraception, and it was absolute hell. Now, because as my life has gone on I have experienced child bereavement by cancer and have a son with ASD, my mental health is even more fragile and I'd be at serious risk of suicide if I tried that Mirena again.

Can add me to the list of people who react very badly to hormonal contraception. I was on the pill for a year or so and besides a little bleeding almost every day and thickened mucous I didn't realise what else it was doing to me because I was only 16 and hadn't fully matured.

At around the age of 23 I found myself in a relationship and got the Depo Provera jab. Within days everything from that time in my life earlier came back and I realised that it was because of the contraception.

This time was worse. Perhaps because it's an increased dose or something? I walked under a dark cloud whatever the weather really was. I was suicidal, didn't want sex, rowed with my boyfriend over nothing, had major mood swings and when I got my period back after three months I actually cried with relief at getting the wretched bastard bleed back again.

After I had my first and probably last child at the age of 33 I visited the midwife for the antenatal check up and she wanted to insert a coil. I refused and told her about my previous experiences. She insisted it wouldn't be the same but I stood my ground and said I wasn't taking any chances.

I'm glad I did now, after reading this. According to her there's a significant risk of becoming pregnant far too quickly after the birth of a child before your body has had a chance to heal. I don't know if that was guff or not.

That Telegraph article that Graphista posted is really interesting: I was actually going to post it myself after googling "GPs incentives mirena". www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11678916/IUS-hormonal-coil-The-troubling-truth.html
I'm not a conspiracy theorist (promise), but there are too many similar stories here - there must be something going on for GPs to be pushing this, and also they have obviously be trained to dissuade women from having them removed. I was actually considering getting one, but have decided against it.

Floris I expect what you and I both found upon googling was quite shocking.

I entered 'incentive for iud uk' and the articles including scholarly articles that concluded it should be stopped. (But they were very long and dry hence no links).

It's disheartening, and really doesn't restore confidence, that Minty chose to take personal offence and dismiss this thread as 'doctor bashing', rather than be concerned at what seems to be a trend of some doctors failing to respect patient autonomy.

I work in a field where I am put in a position of trust to work one to one with people who are often vulnerable. In my profession, client autonomy is taken VERY seriously indeed. If anyone violated clients' autonomy in a way analogous to the issues raised here, they would be looking at a disciplinary from the professional body at the very least. If I heard of a colleague acting in that way I would be furious, and would be seeking to distance myself from such conduct, rather than blame the victim for 'bashing' the potentially offending professional.

I agree there must be something going on here. Even if it is not a straight cash incentive, there must be some way Drs are measured on it. Otherwise the problem would not be so widespread as it appears to be.

My mirena substantially reduces my migraines so despite the nagging feeling that it may be making me put on weight (although that could be the cakes I keep eating), I'll stick with it.
My GP is fabulous and did go through pros and cons in detail and did say it might make the migraines worse but luckily it worked for me.
However, I had mine replaced recently but threads had disappeared so had to go into hospital to have it done. To cut a long story short, I think I'd rather given birth again!

YANB at all U, and I say that as a woman who loved the Mirena. For me it was a miracle contraception which stopped my (heavy and painful) periods with none of the side effects that all the different types of pill I'd tried had given me. I also think there are good reasons to encourage its use (especially as an alternative to the pill) given that user error is by far the most common cause of contraceptive failure. But none of that justifies refusing to remove it from a woman who no longer wants it. It is completely abhorrent to force people to have something in their body that they think is harming them; even if you think their inferences are wrong the distress is real. On a more practical note it's also counter-productive: women aren't going to want to use a form of contraception that they'll be 'stuck with' if they react badly, even if it might actually prove to be the ideal option for them.

I think the issues with the coil are just another example of how women are often put under pressure or not listened too/ignored when it comes to contraceptive choices.

I have 5 biological children. I'm mid thirties and my family is done. One of my twin daughters has quite major and life-long health issues and my daughter born in August will have a major operation the first week in January. Two of my four pregnancies have been contraception failure, including one on the coil. The condom pregnancy I haven't included in contraception failure even though DH and I were absolutely meticulous about using them - I'm taking that as our fault as I don't think we could be unlucky enough to have a third failure.

Despite all of that none of the GP's in my practise will even listen to my requests to be sterilised. Two have said I'm too young. One says I've got to try the Mirena (I already get migraines, hormonal contraception always made them worse) and the other won't discuss it until I'm 40 AND I bring my husband to the surgery with me... This is despite the fact no medical place in the country would consider giving DH the snip because of a medical reason.

So I'm adult enough to sit in conversations and give an opinion on the two different options available for my daughter's care and have my opinion respected in that area, but not adult enough to be believed that I do not want more children.

It's ridiculous. It's not like women are going in two days after having an expensive coil fitten to say "Nah, changed my mind". These are grown adults wishing to have something removed from their body because it's causing them significant issues ffs.