I posted recently about choosing a different birth control option. (I actually use it to control my outrageously bad periods; since 2000 I have had fewer than 10 periods, usually while switching options.) I chose Mirena.
It was really no problem, actually. After finding a doctor on my insurance (it would’ve been $800 to go through Planned Parenthood), I had a checkup, and then today I went in for the insertion. Mirena is an IUD, and it stays in for 5 years.
Girly TMI follows!
The insertion was nothing at all. I ate a good breakfast this morning and took four Advil about two hours before the appointment. There was some discomfort, but nothing like what I was expecting. The doctor said “are you sure you haven’t had a baby? Because you’re not flinching at all!” She had already noted my heavy flow – it gets inserted while you’re on your period – and said “your period really must be bad, because you’re obviously used to cramping.” Yup, that’s why I’m getting it, lady! Apparently I was the best pre-partum patient the doctor and nurse had ever seen.
So it’s in there. I have a little plastic thingie in me. There are some cramps, yeah, but I had those before going in because of my period, so it’s nothing additionally bad. And hopefully I will be in the 1/3 of women who never get another period. If not, hopefully I’ll be in the other 1/3 who have dramatically reduced periods. And if not that, I’ll be in the 1/3 who have somewhat reduced periods. In any case, thank goodness this thing is in place and I can go back to normal life. 