Mirena coil for 16 year old?

[BlitherBlather]

16 year old Dd has had heavy painful periods since they started 5 years ago, she also gets nausea and diarrhea.

She has tried Tranexamic acid and three different pills. The tranexamic acid made her nausea worse and all three pills have had bad side effects, mainly making her feel down, anxious and tired.

She is back from another trip to the GP and they have suggested either:

1. Try yet another combined pill
2. Progesterone only pill
3. Depoprovera - injection every 3 months
4. Mirena coil

Now, I have a Mirena and it has worked wonders with my own periods, I have however had 3 children so obviously am likely to find such things a bit easier than a child free teenager, but even I had to go to the hospital to have it fitted as I have an awkward cervix (they tried and failed for 20 minutes at the GP surgery 😬) and it was still pretty uncomfortable. Does anyone have experience of having a Mirena fitted pre-children? How did you find it? Thanks

I wouldn't put a 16 year old through a coil insertion.

How about the implanon/nexplanon implant? That's in the arm so it's a lot less invasive. Could be a good option for her.

I'm on my 4th so a big fan but I really think it's more important to find the cause of such heavy periods because there will be one. What has been done so far to investigate?

No mirena experience but I started depo provera at 16 after heavy periods since I started 9 - no investigations because all women in my family had similar periods from similar age. I'm still on it at nearly 37 and haven't had a moment's regret although I know experiences do vary, and I have a couple of friends who have switched from depo to the implant and prefer that.

Hope your DD finds something which works, it was the most miserable thing trying to deal with bleeding through in every lesson 😭

And what I actually meant to say there and got sidetracked - it changed my life at 16 and meant I could do normal stuff again like go swimming with my friends, horse riding, even just out for walks and to cinema without having to calculate if I was due on first, or missing stuff for 8 or so days when I was on.

Having had one I'd say that the fitting (pre-kids) wasn't the worst bit but probably not something I would subject a 16yr old to. It did nothing to help my heavy bleeding though and I spent a year being told it might settle.....it didn't, it made things worse. For that reason I would also rule out the Depo because once it's in your system you're stuck with it until the next dose.

My dd has just had one fitted after suffering since the age of 13. (similar thing with mefenamic acid not working and adverse reactions to pill and tranexamic acid). She moved away for uni and due to changing GP's was finally referred for proper tsts and scans and diagnosed with adenomyiosis.

Dd is 21 and a virgin. She says the coil has transformed her life. She would reccomend it.

I would be very, very wary of the implant for someone with a history of adverse reaction to the pill.

Why have they not referred her to a gynaecologist?. She is being fobbed off here big time. She will need to have you to advocate for her.
The CAUSE needs to be properly determined, all the above will do is try and treat the symptoms. None will address the root cause and my money's on endometriosis given how long she has had such problems too.

I could not agree with this more. In dd's case it wasn't endo but adenomyosis is very similar.

I had mine pre kids - like others, it was excruciating for 2 seconds, twice - and then it was over and it was the best contraception I have ever used. Having it out was a breeze. If her periods are awful then I’d imagine 2x2secs cramping would be nothing for her in the pursuit of getting it sorted!

It really depends. I've had issues with various pills in the past including the POP and I didn't have side effects of anxiety or fatigue when I had the implant. I never got the irregular bleeding to settle down though so had it out after a year - might be worth trying.

Totally agree with this. I had a mirena fitted after all other attempts to reduce my excessive bleeding were exhausted. However, the gynaecologist who I saw also did a biopsy at the same time to rule out nothing insidious.

I had the mirena fitted at 16 and was in excruciating pain. I had it removed within a month of having it fitted as the pain was so bad they thought it had moved and after having a scan which showed it was in the right position but I realised I couldn't handle it much longer. I had a baby 9 months ago and I can easily say that that pain was worse than my labour xx