#iud experience

I hated reading this, but its the truth: It hurts. But it hurted waaay waaay less then I expected.

I had it done 3 hours ago, and the pain is nearly gone now. Im enjoying my hot water bottle and some 94% cocoa chocolate and a warm bed.

I got my IUD inserted yesterday. I’m going to give a full explanation of my experience. 

If you’re interested read on!

So I’m going to start from the beginning to give a full account. I can’t take oral birth control because of migraines. I talked with my doctor briefly about IUDs and they recommended for me the Mirena or the Jaydess (also known as Skyla in some places). The difference is basically that the Mirena is good for 5 years and the Jaydess is good for 3 and is slightly smaller. I chose the Mirena because I wanted more longevity. After having it inserted I really don’t think the size difference would matter. I decided on the Mirena. 

So I booked an appointment to officially talk about it with my doctor and they told me all the risks and things. They gave me a prescription for the IUD and cervical softening pills. 

I went to the pharmacy and was happy that the doctor warned me about how HUGE the box is for the IUD. I wish I had brought a bag to conceal it in. The box was about the size of my forearm. The box is big but the IUD is small so don’t worry. 

I was very nervous because I had read lots of stories online and a lot of them freaked me out (I think unnecessarily). 

The night before I inserted the pill into my vagina as directed by my doctor. 

Now I’m going to talk about the insertion process. I want you to keep in mind this is my experience only. All bodies are different and people have different pain tolerance levels. My experience was also classified as a “difficult insertion” by my doctor. I was on day 3 of my period. 

I went in and I had to pee in a cup for a pregnancy test (even though I was on my period). I didn’t know they would be doing this and had JUST gone to the bathroom so make sure you get the cup before you go pee! Then I went into the dr room. The beginning process was very much like a pap smear (in fact I also got my pap smear done at the same time). So they use the opener thing to hold your vagina open. Then they need to measure your uterus to make sure it will fit. 

Here’s where I had some problems. My doctor tried for a bit to get it in but said my cervix was moving too much. So they needed to basically clamp it in place so it doesn’t move around. Up until here it felt the same as a pap smear to me. There was no pain. 

Before using the clamp (which kind of looked like tongs from what I saw) they froze my cervix with a spray. This wasn’t covered under Alberta healthcare but only cost me $10 at the end. The doctor clamped on and it felt sharp to me so I told them and they moved it right away to a position that didn’t hurt. I only felt the sharpness for about 5 seconds and it was only slightly painful. Once they moved it it wasn’t painful. It did feel like cramping though.

My doctor pressed the measuring thing against my cervix for quite a long time. Apparently there are basically 2 openings to the cervix and he was having a lot of difficulty getting past the second part. As they tried and tried it did feel uncomfortable and crampy but the pain level I would say was only 2/10. Very very manageable. 

After a lot of trying my doctor told me that we were at the point where it is not going to be inserted today. We might have to try again another day or try a different method of contraception. 

As he was explaining this he goes “Oh wait!” and boom. It went in. So that felt very painful. And I immediately felt very nauseous and faint. I even yelled a little bit because it hurt quite a bit. He took out the measurer and put in the IUD. I actually did not notice the IUD going in at all and was surprised that it was in when he said it was done. I don’t want you to get scared about the pain though! Even though it was painful the pain only lasted 20seconds to a minute (I’m not good at guessing time). 

They cut the strings and then gave me a juice box. They told me to stay until I was feeling better. After drinking the juice box I didn’t feel faint anymore. And the nausea went away once they were done with me. 

A note about the pain - I really really don’t want anyone reading this to be afraid. A lot of the stories out there say how horrible the pain is and that really freaked me out! It isn’t painless but the pain only lasts such a short amount of time! And my experience was not normal, mine was “difficult”. My dr said they usually take 10-15 minutes and mine took 30-40. 

I felt light cramping for the next hour but nothing even as bad as I get with my period. They told me having someone drive me there would be best. But I think that’s because of the nausea. I would have been 100% ok to drive. If you’re someone who gets really dizzy then maybe you shouldn’t but I would have been ok. I went to work immediately after and was totally ok. It feels like… almost like the first time you wear a tampon. Not painful or anything, just a little weird and uncomfortable for a bit. And sneezing feels a little strange. By the evening I felt 90% normal. And one day later (today) I feel almost totally normal, though I haven’t tried exercising or sex yet. They did recommend I go for an ultrasound to confirm it’s in place properly because of my “difficult insertion”

So in summary - It was really not that bad! There was pain for maybe about 1 minute and then it was fine for me. The way I see it those small 40 minutes of discomfort for 5 years are totally worth it!

If you have any questions at all feel free to message me and I will answer!