mirena coil - is it that bad?

[Mackers123]

Hi all, I am 48 and periods are a bit all over the place, either I miss one, or I bleed for a long time, or I only have a break of 10 days before bleeding again. I do have some fibroids but Dr says they are small so not causing problems. I am due to have a hysteroscopy next week to check me out.

I had the cooper coil fitted around 5 years ago, which on the whole has been good. Dr says they have to remove this to carry out the hysteroscopy. After that they want to fit the mirena coil.

I have just read the ongoing chat about the Mirena and it's scared the hell out of me. I can see there are some positive posts but most are not. I do suffer from depression and put on weight easily so am worried I am doing the right thing.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[loraflora]

No idea, patcast. Although I always got the impression that although not trouble free for everyone, vasectomy had a much lower failure rate and fewer complications than female sterilization. Could your partner consider that?

Regarding my own experience of Mirena, it hasn't been all good but certainly wasn't all bad either. I was fitted due to awful heavy perimenopausal periods and it helped. I had it fitted during hysteroscopy. I had regular spotting initially, then a very light period every few months. I have had episodes of depression in the past and did mention it at the time of fitting. I wouldn't say it made my moods any worse, however and not getting PMS every 3 weeks was a bonus.

The main downside was that I did gain some weight (but have been a yoyo dieter in the past, so can't necessarily blame Mirena on the whole of it) and also had a marked dip in my libido. And after 3 years the strings went missing and I had to have a scan. Apparently the strings just got tucked inside but it's still in place (as are my fibroids unfortunately) so I am sticking with it until it needs to come out, by which time I might be menopausal anyway.