Ok, so I doubt that I have many male readers in the blogosphere, but for those men who do happen to read (or the females who aren't into talking about birth control) - fair warning.. This may be TMI.

Anyway, on to the problem. 


For those who don't know, the Mirena is a form of birth control, an IUD to be exact, that can remain in your body for up to 5 years. It is convenient because you do not have to remember to take a pill daily and it is also able to be removed at any time if you choose.

I'll start by acknowledging that there are tons of women who have the Mirena and are probably 100% happy with it. I don't mean to say that the product is not a good one. What I am saying though, is that everyone's bodies are not the same, and unfortunately I have learned that my body is apparently in the small percentage that does not handle birth control very well. I seem to get every unwanted side effect you can think of. It was this way years ago when I was on the pill, then afterwards when I was on the NuvaRing, and now the Mirena. I have tried it all. Every time I start a birth control, I soon start to notice frequent headaches, weight gain, moodiness, breakouts, and most recently I have become so emotional that I will cry over the silliest thing. (And if you know me well, then you would know that is NOT me or my personality..) 

I know that these things are purely side effects from birth control because I have had times where I completely went off of it for a while (for example, when my husband deployed to Afghanistan for a year..) and started to almost immediately lose weight, have my skin clear up and just plain feel normal

As someone who has been on birth control off an on for 11 years now, I think I can safely say that the side effects I am having and have had in the past are not a figment of my imagination. I have had 2 children as well, so I know my body and emotions from the crazy pregnancy hormonal emotions to the after baby not-quite-post-partum-depression-but-if-you-look-at-me-sideways-I-will-snap emotions. It really is true that you just know your body and you will know what's right or wrong for you.

Clearly there are other people who have these same issues, otherwise they would not be plainly listed as side effects. For the longest time I have just tried to tell myself to suck it up because at least it is doing it's main job which is to keep the baby maker shutdown, but at this point I am so over it. I made myself an appointment for next week to get the awful thing removed.

YES. We will be taking preventative measures once it is removed until we decide on something else. Obviously. We have even talked about looking into more permanent measures. Time will tell what we decide to do but for now my main concern is getting back to feeling like me.

Please tell me that I am not the only one with birth control horror stories?!

UPDATE --  Click here to read about my life after birth control!