Estrogen patch symptoms and conditions

I've had the Mirena since Aug. 2006 - three years now. I considered having it removed because of intense irritability, depression, suicidal thoughts, and lack of interest in sex the past 5 months. I went to my doctor's office this morning to have it removed, but kept an open mind to alternatives. I'm 39 years old, and the doctor indicated that at my age, some of these issues are normal. I found a list of Menopause side effects, and many are similar to Mirena's side effects! At any rate, I asked if there is a way to offset these side effects so that I can keep the Mirena. She gave me an estrogen patch called "Vivelle", and I'm hoping that will help. Has anyone else tried estrogen therapy to offset Mirena's side effects? I still have the Mirena and will follow up in a few weeks.

Oh, and I forgot to mention.... the bloating is actually WORSE and I have GAINED 2 lbs since removal. Not to mention the headaches are worse and the tingling in the foot is still there.

I have PCOS, and was experiencing dysplasia of the endometrium. After some search, a doctor recommended the Mirena. This was November of 2008. The installation should have been a clue of things to come. I have never had children, and had a tipped uterus, and as a result they had to use the clamps that look like needle nose pliers to grab my cervix, and after 45 minutes of stuffing, got it in. It was excruciating. I was working out 6 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day, and eating South Beach Phase 2- and had lost 80 lbs and had maintained for 1 year. I asked if it would in any way cause weight gain, and was told it would not. Within the first month my diet/exercise regimen failed, and despite working out 7 days a week and resuming Phase 1, I was gaining 10 lbs a month- which my Doctor would not discuss with me except to dismiss it. To make a long story short, after life threatening edema and bleeding 22 or 23 days straight and with my now discovered sensitivity to progesterone, I required a total abdominal hysterectomy to remove an enlarged, boggy, and fibroid riddled uterus. I am doing 200% better now, and I am sure there are some women the Mirena works well for, but I was not one of them, and I feel the Mirena actually endangered my life (that and the arrogant doctor who inserted it and told me to be patient. I had it in from 11/2005 to 7/2007- is that time enough?) Please, please,please. If something does not feel right, do not NO for an answer. I did not want children so I was okay with losing the ability to bear children, but having a TAH at 38 is a life change that most younger women would not want. Would I have had to have it anyway? Perhaps. But I could have been in a position to be navigator in my care rather than reactive as I was forced to be.

I had my second Lupron shot this last mid October that lasts, supposedly, 3 months. So I will be 5 months in this mid December and I have to say I was one of the people who was fine with Lupron...up until now. I had and have all of the typical side effects of hot flashes, headaches, memory loss, mental fog, etc. Then I had my first ever migraine a week ago that knocked me on my butt for 2 days. My memory loss and depression are by far, by far, the worst side effect I have experienced. At this point I am concerned my memory problems and mind fog will not go back to normal, which has already adversely affected by daily life. I was one of the people who spoke positive of this injection even after reading all the horror stories but now I am beginning to wonder if they were right on some levels. When reading all the different experiences I would get confused and wouldn't know what to believe. I am not saying I would change things, the jury is still out as to whether the benefits will outweigh the difficulties, but my personal experience and symptoms have been getting worse just in the last few weeks, so that would be between month 4 and 5 on it. I could lead a pretty normal life up until recently and I'm a pretty tough person, I clean houses for a living and work hard with a packed schedule so I am not just stating little symptoms I experience but ones that actually have affected my daily life. Just being honest so you know what to possibly expect, depending on your body's reaction. That is a point to keep in mind, everyone's body reacts differently but if the majority of people are saying the SAME side effects, makes you wonder if there is a consistent pattern.

One thing I will tell you that has helped me is B vitamins regularly in your system and staying as active as possible. Write things down to remind you for the memory issues, don't over-commit to things because of the mental affects-it hits you hard when you can't follow through, and try to watch your sugar intake, which messes with your emotions. Hope this is helpful.
I would love to know from someone who has the same symptoms (which looks like almost everyone who is on it) and who is now off of Lupron for at least a few months, if the symptoms of memory loss and mind fog go away. Is my memory permanently damaged?

Ladies, thank you for all of your posts. I now know that I am not crazy! I am 32 and was on the pill for the past 3 years since my last child was born. I went off the pill and had the mirena inserted in February 2008. I had a few friends that had it who raved about how much they loved it. I talked with my gyn and it sounded like a good fit for me. In the first month that it was inserted I had to call the on call gynecologist at night or on weekends because I was having such sharp pains in my pelvic area. It would stop me in my tracks, I would lose my breath, and couldn't move. I went in to the office twice in the first month because I was just not feeling right about the way things were going. My doc assured me it was all normal and that I had to give it a few more months. I did have random spotting/periods for the first 3 months, which was annoying, but bearable. In June I had an ovarian cyst rupture and the pain was so bad I could have sworn I was in labor. I went to the ER and they found that one had ruptured but there was another one that was almost 5 cm in diameter. Subsequent ultrasounds showed that I did have a steady cycle of ovarian cysts, but they were small. In the meantime I had trouble sleeping, was flying off the handle for silly things, and just felt completely out of control. I talked to my new family medicine doctor (a woman) and she told me that she felt that my body was going into a semi-menopausal state because of the lack of estrogen in my body. The solution was to put me on an estrogen patch for 3-6 months to see if it helped. I was on the fence about the patch, but knew I had to do something to help me get some sleep again and to calm down. The patch worked quickly and within a week I was feeling calmer, sleeping through the night again. In the meantime I have crazy acne that just seemed to appear from no where. I'm not sure if it's the estrogen patch, the iud, or a combination of them both. My face is broken out everywhere, all the time. My hair has also changed. It's been straight my whole life. Super straight, now waves or curls. Now all of the sudden I have frizzy, wavy hair that is thinning and just looks so damaged. By the summer, about 3 months after the IUD was inserted my periods were normal, short, but normal, every 4 weeks. Now I have not had a period in 5 weeks (pregnancy test negative) and my cycle before that was only 3 weeks. I have finally decided that I'm done with mirena!! I am going for an appointment on the 17th to have it taken out. I have also just stopped the estrogen patch this week, so I'm hoping to have my body "de-toxed" of all of these hormones soon!

Let your body heal from child birth before you get Mirena, that is my opinion. I didn't get Mirena until my son was over a year old and i haven't had any crazy side effects, at first the bleeding and spotting for about a month and then my period stopped. i love it so far and reading some of these comments i realized the common theme in them is that many of the women have had problems got the Mirena right after having their child. i really think your body needs time to process all the hormone changes and get back to normal before you add birth control to the mix.

Hi, I just got the Mirena back in April and I have had nothing but problems from the get go. First they had trouble inserting the Mirena so instead of 5 minutes it took more like 20 minutes....by the time they got finished I started sweating really bad. I went to stand up and almost passed out. They laid me on a bed, put an ice pack behind my neck and gave me water. They checked my blood pressure and it was VERY low. 15 minutes later my blood pressure still wasn't coming back up so I was not allowed to leave. They started telling me that some people's bodies go into a form of shock and that was probably what happened and they were worried about my blood pressure not coming back up and possibly having to take me over to the emergency in order to get my blood pressure back up. Well about ten minutes later they finally get my blood pressure back up to normal so they finally let me leave their office. I get out to my vehicle and all of a sudden I feel like I am fixing to pass out again. I laid down and called a friend to come and pick me up. I kept an ice pack on the back of my neck for another 30 minutes while resting before I finally felt better again. A couple hours later came the pain. Very bad pain that lasted for the next two weeks and I am usually a person that can take pain. Finally the pain eased up after that and now I only get pain once in a while but here I am 3 months later and I am still bleeding. I feel tired all the time, I've had a lot of migraines, it is painful during sex sometimes, my sex drive has almost totally vanished and my energy level is almost at 0. I have also been experiencing stomach problems and a bloated feeling. I am EXTREMELY tired all the time. I never feel like I get a good nights sleep. I have also been experiencing hair loss but I didn't know if that was from the Mirena or not until I started reading posts on here. Now my bleeding is slowly getting worse the past few weeks. Not only am I bleeding still but now it is coming out in little clots too. Now I am getting worried so I have made an appointment to go back in. I came on here hoping I can find someone that has had the same problem so I wouldn't have to worry until the appointment. Its really disgusting and I am so sick of having this mirena in already.

Good luck to those of you that haven't already experienced these same side effects already......