How was your first mirena coil insertion?

[Suzysuz]

After suffering for years with awful period pains and now heavier periods and clots since having son, I spoke with the gp who recommended mirena coil.

I asked about the fitting process, she said she'd had it, no pain (and I specifically asked as I had a planned section with son so cervix never had to do anything 🤣)

It looked like a small proportion of people had pain when inserting / issues afterward and then I see an article at weekend about it being an awful painful process, should include local anaesthetic etc and lots of other women saying how horrible it was so m unsure whether I can do this now!

Any experiences welcome, good or bad, about having your mirena coil fitted?!

Mine was bloody awful tbh, so painful I cried. My babies were both sections, I don't know f that is relevant?

Having said that, it did the job it was meant to, so it was probably worth the pain 🙂

It was fine. A bit pokey but not painful. Nothing worse than mild period pain after.

I didn't feel it. I obviously felt the speculum being there but no discomfort or pain. Was very quick.

Mine (pre childbirth) was honestly ok. A bit “pinchy” and I had some ibuprofen but I went back to work afterwards and it was fine. I had it done at a contraception clinic at the sexual health centre so it was a woman who fitted them all day, rather than a GP who does them occasionally, don’t know if that makes a difference.

From what I’ve read that experience seems unusual but I don’t know if it’s one of those things where you hear more of the bad stories than the ok ones? I certainly support the campaign to offer pain relief, I didn’t need it but it would have been reassuring to know it was an option.

Mine was fine.
The fact that it did nothing to help my horrendous periods, and in fact I spotted and/or bled the whole 9 months I had it in, is a separate issue.

Take paracetamol 20 mins before your appointment, it will help.

Sightly different perspective, I haven't had a coil, but I am a GP who does coil insertions.

I would say ~85% of women find it mildly uncomfortable, with a bit of period-pain like cramping but nothing more significant than that, around 10% find it more painful but tolerate it, and around ~5% find it intolerable and we end up abandoning the procedure. It is very difficult to predict in advance who will tolerate it well and who will find it painful, although I would say the more anxious the patient is before the procedure the more likely they are to find it very painful. More relaxed patients usually seem to be fine.

I used to offer local anaesthetic injections into the cervix before the procedure but stopped that a while back because;

1. the local injection seemed to be at least as painful, if not more so than the procedure
2. I noticed that a higher proportion of patients who had a local injection into their cervix had a vasovagal episode during/after the procedure where they became dizzy/sick/felt unwell

Mine was fine going in - it was taken out last week which was a bit like cramping.

@ButItRingsAndIRise

Mine was fine. The fact that it did nothing to help my horrendous periods, and in fact I spotted and/or bled the whole 9 months I had it in, is a separate issue.

Take paracetamol 20 mins before your appointment, it will help.

Oh no re it doing nothing 🙈 I'm really hoping it will help with the heavy painful clotty periods....

Thanks for all the replies so far and thanks @pbdr for your perspective, really useful to know

I found it extremely painful, but still worth it.

I had it done at a contraception clinic at the sexual health centre so it was a woman who fitted them all day, rather than a GP who does them occasionally, don’t know if that makes a difference.

Yes, I agree with this. My first one was done in a women's health clinic. It was a bit pinchy, but I took ibuprofen an hour beforehand and it was fine. Second one was much worse, it took ages and was quite uncomfortable, but was done by a GP who runs one clinic per month. So my advice would be go to a clinic that does them all the time - much better!

I had mine done under local anesthesia. As pp said, the injection was pretty painful, but after that I didn't feel a thing. It's been amazing for sorting my heavy painful periods, but unfortunately when I went to have it out, it has gone missing so now waiting on an ultrasound to find out where it is...

Uncomfortable yes, but I've had awful period pain for years so it's about the same. It can't be that bad though because in due for my third and will happily have it again.

How the hell can it get lost @ProcrastinationIsMySuperPower??? I thought the uterus was only the size of a fist, so where the hell can it go?

I had emergency caesarean after non progressive labour with first and elective with my second. Mireya insertion and removal (I've on my third and final) were really fine. Little crampy, slight pinch, that's about it. I hope if you decide to have one, you have minimal discomfort.

My first was absolutely fine. My second (a removal and fitting at the same time) was quite ouchy but only for about a minute. Far less painful than getting anaesthetic injections at the dentist. I would not want jagged in the cervix!!

I had the implant removed and my coil inserted at the same appointment... the only part I really wasn't happy with was the speculum but the actual insertion was just annoying rather than painful

Exactly like a smear for me.

Also no vaginal birth, it was sore but not horrendous. Didn't help that the first speculum wouldn't stay open and then my cervix was at a funny angle which was making it harder for her. I took painkillers before I went and it was a cramps for a couple of days afterwards. It didn't do anything to help my bleeding either. In fact, it made it worse!

I'm so torn now.... I'd be so gutted to go through the fitting if it (a) ended up horribly painful AND (b) didn't even do anything for the heavy/clots/pain 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

And another article out, last one was Caitlin Moran, one below from Naga

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57551641

You will get very mixed responses.

My mirena coil was fitted under general anaesthetic during a hysteroscopy in December 2019, so I didn't feel it being inserted at all.

It was to solve my heavy flooding periods and shrink the fibroids that were believed to be causing them. It did neither. I had it removed in January this year, so it was in for 13 months and never settled. I bled for most of that time and the flooding worsened. An ultrasound scan about a month after removal showed that far from shrinking my fibroids, they had grown and there were more of them.

It works for some people though. I guess there is only one way to find out. A word of warning though - I realised during the very first few weeks that it simply wasn't right for me and did have a lot of difficulty persuading doctors to remove it. They always just kept saying "give it more time" ad infinitum. That is how I ended up stuck with mine for so long (lockdowns etc.).

A mild pinching and some period cramps after but it was fine for me. I'd not long given birth though.

I had one for the same reasons as you OP and it didn't help at all.
It was painful but it was like a painful twinge for 20 seconds and then fine. Kind of like an electric shock.
No problem afterwards.
It was worth a try. Removal didn't hurt at all.