Mirena Switch

[unboundvoice.livejournal.com]

Hello! I'm a longtime reader, first time poster. I had mirena inserted (will be 2 years ago in feb 2012) after the birth of my second child. Since I went straight from pregnancy to mirena (6 weeks in between) and nursed the first year I had mirena, it's hard for me to distinguish where my symptoms are coming from. I'm starting to lean towards blaming mirena because I stopped nursing in march and everything has stayed the same annoying symptom wise.

My main complaints:
1) ACNE!! It's awful. I'm broken out constantly. Sometimes it's painful. It's pretty much all over my face and I have tried switching cleansers, washing pillowcases, and dermatologist prescribed topicals (differin, retin a, and clindamycin)

2) sex drive is gone. I have a 7 year age difference between my kids and I was on yaz for the majority of that time with a very healthy sex drive. It vanished during pregnancy and has not come back :(

3) this could be unrelated but I'm going to throw it out there and see if anyone has experienced something similar. I have a really weird scalp problem that also extends to my face sometimes. At the end of each Hair follicle is a little hard whitish thing..like a tiny grain of rice. I've googled and found that it can be a type of overactive sebaceous glands. I get these on my face around my hairline too, in addition to cystic acne. Could this be related to mirena as well? I didn't have it before!!

4) I just haven't felt "right". I'm not as easy going of a person as I once was (ask my husband! Lol)

So, I'm seriously considering getting the mirena removed ASAP. I'd need a different form of bc and I'm hoping to find one that will help me with these symptoms. Since I was fine on yaz before, should I switch back? Has anyone here ever switched from mirena to another form of bc? What did you choose and how were the results?

Thanks in advance! You guys are awesome!

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Comments

[dkwgdk.livejournal.com]

Short answer: Might be worth considering the Paragard if you don't want to go back to a pill. I can imagine the acne being related to the Mirena, along with the sebaceous gland problem.


Long answer: I'm sorry the Mirena isn't working out. I had cystic acne in my pre-Mirena days and it was treated with a course of Accutane. That sh*t WORKS, it's just very, very nasty to the rest of your body. Now that I've got the Mirena, I'm having some mild acne but nothing like what it once was. It sounds like things are not good at all with yours.

I recently got a pilar cyst on my scalp -- which can be caused by overactive sebaceous glands, too. I've had them before, though, so I'm not 100% sure it's Mirena-related. On the other hand, there is a higher incidence of pilar cysts among pregnant women than among the general population, so maybe it is related to your past pregnancy? However, two years seems like a long time to wait for the problem to turn up if it was actually pregnancy-related.

Ugh. I feel you on the acne, and the hair follicle problem, too. Wish I had some solutions, hope you hear from others.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

Here's the Mirena Patient Information Leaflet (http://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/2796/PIL/mirena/) for UK users. To summarise:

(1) acne is in the "common" category of side effects, i.e. up to 10% of users will experience it
(2) reduced sex drive is in the common cateogry of side effects
(3) can't see any mention of this
(4) depression and nervousness are common side effects, and "mood changes" are uncommon (less than 1% of patients)

And if you're thinking "well, but surely I won't get ALL of these common side effects from the same thing"... I experienced (1), (2) and (4) as well as weight gain, painful periods[1], pelvic pain, and tender breasts.

In your shoes I'd be strongly suspecting the Mirena as a culprit, yes. Three days after I'd had it removed (one year into its five-year stint) I was happy again and my sex drive was returning. I can't answer your question about switching back, unfortunately.

[1] This was especially a pity, because I'd started using the Mirena for endometriosis!

[dkwgdk.livejournal.com]

Did your weight sort itself? I'm just curious...I'm terrified of the weight gain potential with Mirena, but my periods were so out of control that it was worth the risk of weight problems to try the IUD.

Content warning for weight-related talk

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I had lifestyle changes at the same time (university, geology, disability) which complicate matters, on top of which I weigh myself about 3 times a year anyway and try not to think about it too much because I've got a history of disordered eating. Sorry not to be more helpful.

Re: Content warning for weight-related talk

[dkwgdk.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your reply -- I'll be sure to include the content warning in any of my future weight-related postings, too. I appreciate it.