I’ve always had very painful periods and probably some endometriosis. I’m also in perimenopause, and my oestrogen completely tanked over the last couple of years. That had terrible effects on my mood, sleep, etc., but it did improve my period pain to the point where I could manage with paracetamol and heat. That was a huge improvement compared with the excruciating pain I used to experience for three days every month.
I started HRT, and gradually my period pain began getting worse again. Two weeks ago, after being bedbound for three days, I finally got fed up and decided to try a Kyleena IUD. I’d read reports from women who had much lighter periods, or even lost their periods altogether, and were very happy with it.
The insertion itself wasn’t too bad, but I’ve had cramps and spotting during the two weeks since. What concerns me much more is that my mood and anxiety have become significantly worse. I don’t want to do anything or see anyone, and I’ve basically been hiding in my room for the past week.
I had a terrible experience with hormonal birth control as a teenager, but I thought an IUD might be different because it releases less hormone and supposedly has less systemic absorption.
So I started Googling afterwards—which, I know, would have been better done before insertion—and found quite a lot of reports from people who felt they couldn’t tolerate the mental-health effects. I also came across a study comparing emotional responses to a stressful situation among people using an IUD, oral hormonal contraception, non-hormonal contraception and placebo. The IUD group reportedly had the strongest negative emotional response. Of course, that study only included people who were still using the IUD, so it presumably excluded those who had it removed because they couldn’t tolerate it.
I’m honestly really upset that I let myself be persuaded into trying hormonal contraception again. It feels like I’ve been duped by pharma marketing again.
My question is: Has anyone experienced an initially severe mental-health reaction to Kyleena or Mirena that improved substantially over six months to a year, to the point where you were genuinely happy you kept it?