I've had my paraguard for 6 months now, and here's what I can tell you about it:
Check out the IUD DIVAS live journal, it's just the best.
1. Cramping. I won't lie, the cramps are bad when they decide to be. I've learned to take things a bit slower, and drink lots of water when I notice the warning signs of an oncoming cramp attack. Before the paraguard I rarely ever experienced anthing other than a mild yucky feeling. However, at five months with the IUD they were half gone, and now a six months I haven't had any except where you would expect them (giving a public speech).
2. Strings, not a problem. I kept mine long, never had them trimmed, the boyfriend has never felt them, and checking for them is no problem.
3. Cervix issues. I have no controll group for these observattions, so I can't be sure if the issue is IUD related or not. If while having sex my boyfriend's penis contacs my cervix strongly, it hurts. To fix it I just shift, or have him shift so that he's no longer striking my cervix. I do experience a similar pain if I insert a tampon really deeply, so it may just be that squishing the cervix always causes pain.
3. Heavy periods. I had pretty light periods before the IUD, two days of super sized tampons, and then the rest of the week was really light. I hated using tampons after getting the IUD, due to the cervix squishing issues, and 10+ days of using tampons really dries you out. I now use a menstural cup, and I put them in the top 10 best things that I've ever discovered. I'd rather give up coffee than my menstrual cup. It's solved the heavy period issue to the point where my period is now easier than it was before the IUD. Check out Menstrualcups.org if you're interested.
3. I'm thinking over your thought about that if you hate tampons, than an inserted contraceptive might not be good. My thought is that tampons are a whole different ball game than an IUD, and not comparable.
4. Yeast infections: the VP vulvapedia can give you better info than I could, because most of my info comes from there! The garlic works wonderfully in my experience, stops the itch within 10 minutes, and it's so cheap!
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Paraguard IUD
Date: 2008-10-30 03:24 am (UTC)Check out the IUD DIVAS live journal, it's just the best.
1. Cramping. I won't lie, the cramps are bad when they decide to be. I've learned to take things a bit slower, and drink lots of water when I notice the warning signs of an oncoming cramp attack. Before the paraguard I rarely ever experienced anthing other than a mild yucky feeling. However, at five months with the IUD they were half gone, and now a six months I haven't had any except where you would expect them (giving a public speech).
2. Strings, not a problem. I kept mine long, never had them trimmed, the boyfriend has never felt them, and checking for them is no problem.
3. Cervix issues. I have no controll group for these observattions, so I can't be sure if the issue is IUD related or not. If while having sex my boyfriend's penis contacs my cervix strongly, it hurts. To fix it I just shift, or have him shift so that he's no longer striking my cervix. I do experience a similar pain if I insert a tampon really deeply, so it may just be that squishing the cervix always causes pain.
3. Heavy periods. I had pretty light periods before the IUD, two days of super sized tampons, and then the rest of the week was really light. I hated using tampons after getting the IUD, due to the cervix squishing issues, and 10+ days of using tampons really dries you out. I now use a menstural cup, and I put them in the top 10 best things that I've ever discovered. I'd rather give up coffee than my menstrual cup. It's solved the heavy period issue to the point where my period is now easier than it was before the IUD. Check out Menstrualcups.org if you're interested.
3. I'm thinking over your thought about that if you hate tampons, than an inserted contraceptive might not be good. My thought is that tampons are a whole different ball game than an IUD, and not comparable.
4. Yeast infections: the VP vulvapedia can give you better info than I could, because most of my info comes from there! The garlic works wonderfully in my experience, stops the itch within 10 minutes, and it's so cheap!