Hello,
On April 22nd, 2021 I had my first ever IUD insertion. This was a big deal for me since I've been on the birth control pill since I was fifteen years old, back in late 2010. I'll give you a backstory, which will go into the reasons why I opted to get an IUD and go off the pill.
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| Public Domain image: By Wikipedia user User: Hic et nunc |
My birth control pill backstory
I didn't go on the pill because I was sexually active or needed to help calm period pains, but because I had really bad back acne AKA bacne. It was all over my back and shoulders and it was big and painful and nothing else worked. My mom didn't want me going on the pill because she thought that would make me sexually active, even though I knew I was too young (in my opinion) and no boy or girl that I would've found cute would've wanted to date me at the time. Once I convinced my mother that I wouldn't be making her a grandmother before the age of fifty, I filled the prescription for Alesse and maybe missed two pills for the next five years.
Birth control magically cleared my acne up within six months. I did get a normal breakout on my face from time to time, but my back was clear, aside from all of the excess body hair I have. But I still looked cuter without the giant pimples all over the place. For years I took the pill within minutes of my nine o'clock PM timer, and continued doing so into University where I did become sexually active. I never experienced side effects (that I knew of at the time) and my period was super regular and fairly light. I didn't even have cramps.
Fast forward several years and I was graduated from university and working in my first full time position that gave me benefits so I no longer had to pay out of pocket for my birth control pills. I noticed that I had started breaking out on my face more frequently and after doing some online research, I learned that the areas of the breakouts were associated with hormones. I went back to the doctor and they recommended a stronger pill, so for the first time ever, I changed brands to Tricera-lo. It seemed to work well for a few months, but when I started experiencing cramping and my libido took more of a hit than it had in my second year of uni, I became concerned. Fast forward a few years with the problem persisting, and several blood tests later, and I was on a waitlist for a specialist that took an entire year to get an appointment with.
Why I stopped birth control pills
I'd always assumed that if a medication was going to cause side-effects, that it would do it from the beginning. I never thought that birth control that I'd been taking for almost six years would suddenly affect my libido and energy levels. I only learned this a few months ago when I finally met with an ObGyn who specialist in sex drive. He took an interest in me quickly because I'm only twenty-five years old and the first thing he said to me was: "You're on birth control pills, right?" Fifteen minutes later he prescribed me an IUD and faxed me a blood test to check pretty much everything that can possibly be checked with a blood test, and had my insertion appointment booked.
IUD Insertion and reaction
I was told to take two pain killers about an hour prior to the IUD insertion, which I did (except I only took one ibuprofen since it was 400mg). I had my husband drive to my appointment since that was also a recommendation as some women can become dizzy or feel sick. I was a bit nervous because I'd seen so many videos of people saying it was terrible, or from those who reacted very poorly. I figured it would be worse than getting a pap smear, which isn't the worst thing, but it does cause discomfort for me as my cervix is tilted, which means it causes some trouble to get in there properly.
I checked in, removed my pants and underwear, and awkwardly waited below the medical exam paper for my doctor to show up. I was a little weirded out because not only is my ObGyn a man, he's also quite old and resembles Danny Devito under the mask. I ended up being super impressed at how quick and painless the insertion was. The doc knows what he's doing and explained to me that a pap smear or IUD insertion should never hurt or be very uncomfortable, which was shocking to me after hearing the majority of people online and in real life saying it was the worst pain they'd experienced. I felt no pain and it was at least three times less uncomfortable than the pap smears I'd gotten at my family doctors office.
After insertion I went over my blood work with the doctor and learned I'm extremely deficient in vitamin D and Iron, so we created a plan for that, but the doc explained that my libido should be back within three months and I would likely start noticing its return through my dreams. Apparently that's the most common reaction to a dormant libido waking up from a long slumber.
I asked the doc about what I could and couldn't do and he said that after a few days I should be fine to resume sexual activity, but I could pretty much do everything as normal right away except for exercising if I did end up cramping as it isn't the normal period cramping.
I did end up cramping on the drive back home, so I was grateful that my husband took a half-day to go with me. It got worse and I ended up taking a two hour nap in a position that didn't make everything hurt. I only waited two days to resume sexual activity, but should've probably waited a few more as I did end up cramping all over again after the deed was done, but it wasn't nearly as bad. I still get a mild pain on the left side (near my hipbone) after sex, but it's been less and less each time.
Up until May 10th I was still spotting. The week before the 10th I suddenly started cramping like I would prior to my period starting. Of course on the morning of May 10th my period started, lasting ten full days. It wasn't ideal and I was worried that it'd stick around forever, but once it ended, I was no longer spotting and could start wearing my cuter underwear again without fear of ruining them. According to the doc and most resources online, it can take up to three months to stop spotting, six months in very rare cases. Thankfully mine was less than a month, including the slightly early period. HOWEVER, I did end up being one of the 10% of individuals who experience prolonged periods after IUD insertion. Apparently this should stop after three months, but I'm on day 16 of my second period post-insertion and I'm getting a little annoyed at it. I will update after three months have gone by.
Some side-effects I've experienced from going off the pill, not necessarily from the IUD, include:
- A few acne spots on my back, along with the recurring pimples on my chin, but that seems to have calmed down.
- Body odour. This may sound normal, but I'm one of the rare humans that don't produce B.O. I'm talking hours of rollerskating with super sweaty feet and if you were to smell my wet socks, you wouldn't smell anything other than the smell of detergent and my shoes. I'm not even exaggerating, it's a real thing. A few weeks after going off of the pill, I started having smelly underarms, but thankfully that went away after my first period was over and hasn't returned since.
- Terribly period cramps before and during my first period, including extreme (for me) bloating. I did a blog post where I tried on crop tops I ordered and the difference from one day to the next is very noticeable. Thankfully, that's also gone away.
- Early first period. I don't know if this is from the IUD, from going off the pill or from getting my first vaccine only one week after insertion (it's known to affect the menstrual cycle), but my period was over one week early, and painful as per my previous point.
At the time of writing this on June 16th, I'm still on my second period on day sixteen, as mentioned before. It was very light every day and I had minimal cramping and bloating, which makes me really happy. Of course I'm annoyed that I'm one of the unlucky 20%, but I'm holding out hope that once three months go by, I'll go back to a regular length period, or even better, no period at all. I'm still less than two-months out from the insertion so things might still change, but I'm probably going to do an update post at some point, perhaps three or six months, to let you know if anything else has changed.
See you soon!
