Pain Relief during IUD procedures

Our practice nurse applies a little bit of local anaesthetic numbing gel when fitting & removing coils, I had no clue this wasn’t standard procedure.

I nearly passed out after having the mirena coil fitted - unfortunately I was driving at the time so that was a bit scary.

I had my copper coil inserted in the US. No pain relief. As I have a titled uterus, they also inserted it incorrectly and left me swollen and in pain for months until had it removed (was never explained to me that this could happen).

I had a lidocaine injection into the cervix and no problem

I've had both, they aren't that similar in my experience. I'd chose an iud insertion with paracetamol over a bum camera with g&a, although ideally I'd have neither.
I was told that colonoscapys are on the whole more painful for women due to the bowel taking more twists and turns because of the reproductive organs and the larger chance of internal scar tissue and adhesions in the pelvis.

I was told that colonoscapys are on the whole more painful for women due to the bowel taking more twists and turns because of the reproductive organs and the larger chance of internal scar tissue and adhesions in the pelvis.

Also because equipment was made for male anatomy not female anatomy
Can also result in incomplete tests as scope simply won't fit.

Even worse than having the coil fitted are hysteroscopies without pain relief.

Am I the only one who isn't bothered by the fitting or removal?

I had three injections into my cervix when I had my Mirena fitted. It still hurt.

I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be laughing as this is a serious subject, but cheugy’s “titled” uterus cracked me up!
Is it a Duchess or a Countess?

Oh my goodness I'm so sorry so many people struggle. I had no idea, I didn't even feel mine going in. If people are finding it painful of course pain relief should be on offer, ridiculous it's not.

I've had two that were no bother - right after births - two that were utterly bloody excruciating (first and last, which came seven years after last birth).

The last one actually triggered a fainting reaction. Had to have several tries. No pain relief.

I was traumatised after my IUD being out in 10+ years ago. I had never experienced so much pain (I was 21 with no children). I’ve never passed out before but nearly collapsed after it having it done. The doctor was incredibly unsympathetic. I had taken painkillers prior to the procedure and a diazepam but was only offered numbing gel which did nothing. I had to get a taxi home and was in severe pain for the next day or so. It absolutely killed my sex drive because the thought of anyone touching me after it brought back the physical sensations of having it put in. I probably had a particularly bad experience but was not warned that I could experience anything over the discomfort of a smear. It was great while it was in but bloody thing dislodged after about six months and got stuck in my vaginal wall 😭😭 NEVER AGAIN. I can’t believe that options of pain relief are not more widely offered.

I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be laughing as this is a serious subject, but cheugy’s “titled” uterus cracked me up!
Is it a Duchess or a Countess? grin

It was obviously a typo for ‘tilted’. Maybe keep this to yourself next time if you know you shouldn’t be laughing?

I can cope with the removal part. It's unpleasant, but over quickly. The insertion OTOH is awful. Last time I was totally stoned on Diazepam (I took 3 tablets IIRC) and I barely remember it. I remember that it was nearly as bad as the previous time, but but I don't remember any details. So that's going to be my method in the future - Diazepam. Lots of Diazepam. I wish we could be offered Entonox while having an IUD inserted. As for having local anaesthetic injected directly into the cervix - Just thinking about an injection there and my cervix has fled till it's somewhere near my ears!

This is why I can never even contemplate having it done, I wound happily be sedated/anaesthetised for my smears 😭

I had sedation for mine - when they tried to insert it normally I was crying with pain before they’d even got the speculum fully in (smear tests are similarly difficult). When I had the sedation the last thing I remember was counting down from ten, then waking up in the recovery room. I’ve also had a colonoscopy, but the sedation was much lighter for that - it didn’t honestly seem like it did anything and the procedure was pretty uncomfortable, but not terrible.

I was chatting to two colleagues who also have the coil the other day - one found it excruciating, the other barely felt it (neither have children). It’s clearly very different for each person

Although after the Mirena insertion I cramped like hell for two weeks so it didn’t get me out of all the pain

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I had my copper IUD replaced recently at a clinic run by GSTT. When I had my first IUD placed at a sexual health clinic (by a female clinician) she administered a superficial local anaesthetic as standard. I asked the (male) consultant if he was going to do that as it didn't feature in his explanation of the procedure and he said no, not as standard, as apparently research suggests administering local anaesthetic to the cervix doesn't actually have any impact on the pain. However to be fair to him he did then offer it (which I accepted!). No idea if it was actually an anaesthetic or just sterile saline for the placebo effect!

Both my IUD insertions have been pretty unproblematic. I get terrible mittelschmerz though which apparently shouldn't be connected to IUDs but definitely appears to be given I never experienced it before having them.

I was offered a local anaesthetic gel or injection when I had mine fitted. Opted for the injection as the nurse said the pain relief was more effective. Insertion was uncomfortable but not painful, like getting a tooth pulled. Shocked to discover that's not standard.

I fit a lot of IUD/IUSs. The evidence for using local anaesthetic is that it doesn’t really help and you have at least partly put the inserter into the cervical canal to do it otherwise you are just applying it to the end of the cervix which is not much help. A cervical block (injection of local anaesthetic into the cervix) is generally considered a more specialist procedure so is not usually carried out in GP surgeries.
A coil fit is not really a similar process to a colonoscopy so I don’t think that comparison is helpful.
For me, the important things are that women should be as comfortable as possible during the fit and the expected level of pain should be similar to that of period type pain (although obviously that is variable) and manageable with over the counter pain relief. Most important of all though is that if at any point a woman wants to stop or have a break that should be done immediately.
As an aside, for some women procedures involving the cervix can trigger stimulation of the nerve pathways that lower blood pressure and heart rate making some women feel faint.

Damn no edit button!! Should say anaesthetic gel in the first line!

Mine was a nightmare.

I had two children which meant it was presumably going to be ok (ish) due to giving birth etc. I'd never actually been in Labour though.

She had a hell of a job getting it in. And she seemed quite pissed off with me about the struggle she was having. It was really just horrible.

The strings went AWOL and I had to have it out with a GA. the consultant who had a look before that said my cervix was 'tight as a drum' and it must have been really hard to get it in, and pretty awful for me.

Yep.