Mirena

As I've mentioned before, my husband and I would like to add on to our family in the sort-of-near future. Our original plan was to start thinking about #3 at the end of this year. That may still happen, but we aren't sure. We have a few stipulations, but as long as they are met then we have the green light. Once #3 is born, I'll be a SAHM since we won't be able to afford daycare so we really have to make sure we have our ducks in a row.

Anyway, I currently have the Mirena IUD as my choice of birth control. I started out on the pill as a teenager and was on it for many years. I got pregnant with Jayden during one of the times where I was off the pill as we weren't actively preventing at the time. After Jayden was born, I got back on the pill for a while, and then I switched to the NuvaRing. I has massive complications with that as I bled for three WEEKS straight! Talk about having a period for three weeks...not fun. After I told my doctor about that, she immediately took me off the ring and put me on the patch. Aaron and I DTD that month and since it was the first month on a new birth control, we also got the emergency contraceptive thinking that would help us cover our bases. 2 weeks later... we got a blaring positive on a pregnancy test. Here comes Jaxson!

After Jaxson, I decided to get back on birth control. Aaron and I figured it would be a couple years before we'd start discussing another child just because we weren't expecting to have two kids so close together and we definitely had our hands full. I would have gotten back on the pill, but I've been so scatterbrained with two kids that I couldn't trust myself to remember to take a pill everyday, and seeing as how Jaxson was a birth control baby I now consider myself defective. :) I'm a little nervous that I'll get pregnant on birth control again. So, we opted for an IUD. This way I could still breastfeed Jaxson as it is one of the only methods that doesn't interfere with milk production. After looking at my choices and talking with my doctor, we decided to go with the Mirena. It's good for 5 years, has a 99% accuracy rate, wouldn't mess with my fertility, and I wouldn't have periods while on it. It fit in with my lifestyle as I didn't have to mess with a daily pill, weekly patch, or monthly ring. I could put it in and forget about it for 5 years...or whenever we decided to TTC again and then I could just make an appointment to have it removed.

Well, I've had it since late July and it's been okay. At times I can feel pressure from it or I feel a bit uncomfortable but aside from that, it hasn't given me physical trouble. In addition, I'm still having periods. Not every month, but around every other month still (which I was told wouldn't happen). I spotted for about a month after having it placed too. But over the past week or so, I've been doing additional research about fertility and conceiving after using a Mirena... and the picture isn't as pretty as it was painted out to be. I told Aaron about my findings and after talking with multiple women who have used Mirena, it looks like the rates of infertility and/or complications with getting pregnant and having miscarriages after a Mirena are higher than they lead on. It could take me over a year to get pregnant after having it removed!! Not to mention if there is scar tissue from the IUD, that it could make it hard for a viable pregnancy. Aaron looked up some information and came up with some alarming statistics: 20% of women will take up to a year or more to conceive after Mirena, 10% of THOSE pregnancies will end in miscarriage or could be ectopic.

Um, no thank you. As hard of a time as Aaron has given me at times for wanting another child sooner than expected, he's also frustrated by this. He told me, "You should get that thing removed. I know we plan on having more kids, and I'd like more. Even though I'm happy with the two we have now, I'd be really upset if I found out down the line that you couldn't get pregnant anymore or we'd have difficulty". With Jayden, he was our first month "trying". We weren't really trying, but it was our first month of not preventing and we got pregnant. Jaxson, well he was our surprise BC baby...not trying at all and we were lucky enough to get pregnant. We've never had trouble conceiving and I've always been like clockwork, so to think that I'm using birth control that could affect my ability to have more children is frightening. I'm also very alarmed that doctors and other sources downplay the risks of the Mirena which makes it sound safer than it is. I know it's not impossible to get pregnant after the Mirena, but 20% is still a big statistic. That's 1 out of 5 women. Do I really want to take the chance that I could be one of the unlucky ones? No, I don't.

So Aaron and I discussed it and we've decided that it would be best for me to have my Mirena removed. I was planning on having it removed in October or November so Aaron and I could start trying this December or January 2011, but after the research I've done and the discussions I've had, I'm not going to risk it. I've made my appointment to have it removed for next Thursday, February 11th. In the meantime, I most likely will get back on the pill and we will use other preventative methods. I'm also going to start charting so that I know my cycles well enough to know when to abstain and not.

Just as my tip to the women who may read this... PLEASE do extensive research when choosing a birth control method. I thought I had looked at my options well before choosing and now I'm feeling very uncomfortable with my choice. Had I known all of this beforehand, I would have gone a different route. If you want to use an IUD, Mirena may be right for you if you choose not to have more children but don't want something permanent, but look into other options such as Paragard. I don't think I'll ever go back to using an IUD again after this. My fertility is not something that I want to play with especially since we have not completed our family.

I'm very pleased with this decision and I'm glad I didn't wait any longer. Please pray for me for next Thursday that the removal goes well, recovery is good, and that there won't be any lasting effects. Thank you!