Shocker symptoms and conditions

Wow, just wow I can't even begin to say how happy I am to have found this site. I am actually choked up. A little background:

I got the Mirena in about three months after the birth of my daughter in July of 02 (our second child), at around this same time my husband and I were having severe marital issues, we were a VERY happy couple before this. I was extremely irritable, was so mad at him all the time over anything he would do that would remotely annoy me, we attributed this to the baby blues and tried to work through it. My sex drive was non-existent, and I hated him more than anything. Well, about three years ago we divorced... after much counseling and anti-depressants, even being diagnosed as having bi-polar disorder and being put on Lithium (which I refused to take) I was NORMAL before all this, why did I snap? I had one baby and was fine!!! That was the greatest mystery to me, and I felt like a horrible worthless person. :(

The now:
I have met someone else, and we are engaged to be married and just bought a home together, when we first started seeing each other I was VERY shocked that my sex drive was back (which I now attribute to it being new, and I was free for the first time in years), however, over the past years we have been together it has all but completely vanished again. We will have sex maybe once or twice a month, and really it is to make him happy. My temper is outrageous, my kids are very touchy when it comes to asking me to do something etc.. I find myself stuck to my couch or to my PC playing WoW because it takes little or no effort on my part. I have no energy to do anything. Cleaning the house, or simply helping the kids with the homework is just.. exhausting mentally. My fiance takes the kids out because I never want to. We will make plans together only to have me break them, the ONLY thing that he can get me to do is eat out.. because and here is a shocker, I just want to stuff my face so long as it is prepared by somebody else. I used to love to cook and I don't want to anymore. I don't know how much weight I have gained since the insertion, this was 7 years ago and two Mirenas in. But I am HUGE in comparison to how I was.
About one year ago, a few months after the 5 year replacement was put in I started having problems with walking, which again Mirena didn't even cross my mind as being the culprit. I woke up one morning with slight cramping in my feet, within a month I was unable to walk. The doctors could not figure out what was wrong with me, I was getting odd lumps on my legs, and the pain from trying to walk was just unbelievable. They tested me for lupus, and it was a no go. Did the talk of birth control ever come up with the doctors? No. But after about a month.. it just, went away. Just as suddenly as it came.
Someone on here posted about "panic attacks" hun.. I have the same problem. My heart like to fly up to my throat, and it is the equivalent of feeling as though I were drowning.. but only for a few moments. Heart doc said.. I am normal. HAH! Really? NEVER had this problem before the Mirena... hrm.

So in a nutshell MY side effects I believe are (some not listed in the above background):
Insane mood swings
Walking problems
The inability to relax
NO sex drive, zilch gone
Laziness, no ambition to do anything even small daily chores
Discharge and odd odors
Never feeling clean downstairs
Facial hair thats right ladies, growing a beard :(
Large amount of weight gain
insatiable appetite
Depression
Dryness
Diarrhea
Sharp pains in my abdomen and breasts
"Fluttering" spasms in my abdomen almost feels as though a baby is kicking
One divorce and a quickly fading engagement...

PLEASE take it from me, DO NOT get this. It is just not worth it. It has changed my life for the worst, I have made do with my past and am actually happy for the divorce, the Mirena actually helped me to see what I would ignore in him. But everything else, has been nothing but a long painful road. It has made a normal healthy woman, into a fat lazy woman that has lost her lust for life and everything in it.
I am making a doctors appointment on Monday, I can't express how shocked I am that this birthcontrol has done this to me, sure some people may think that some of the problems I am dealing with or have dealt with may not be directly attributed to it... but think about it. I was fine and nothing was wrong until I had this inserted. And there are far too many coincidences to allow myself to turn a blind eye. I will keep you updated in my "rebirth".

Again.. thank you.

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting on anything like this so please just hang in there while I explain my side effects. During the first few months of having the IUD, I did bleed sorta heavy but it wasn't a shocker to me because I have always been this way, then 3 months later, my periods were gone. Almost a year to date, I began to have a few problems; including thinking that I felt the IUD moving inside of me, it was like a scrapping feeling, but after 2 months of those pain it went away. So, in October 2008 I had the IUD removed and I felt great, but a little more depressed and gained about 12 pounds. In January, I found out that I was pregnant, which was really soon after having the IUD removed. Well, today is 2/16/09 I found out that the baby has died, which is very upsetting, not only because this is my first miscarriage, but because I almost got my husband fixed. I can't prove that the Mirena could have been the cause of this, but it is something to think about, I am going in for a D & C tomorrow, which is something like an abortion but it is for a dead fetus.

Have stopped taking Zocor today after finally accepting that my life has changed since taking this medication....am too weak to open a soda bottle, keep twisting words, memory is shot, Hips, knees and ankles scream whenever I have been sitting for more than 15 minutes....light headed, dizzy and constant headache...want to just curl up in a ball and cover my head for loss of ambition. I am exhausted all of the time.

I JUST started Loestrin 24 Fe (day one) and have been reading many articles and websites (anything from the literature in the research journals to the Mayo Clinic posts). I have just read through this entire site and took in all the feedback from the women who have shared the side effects. I have NEVER taken BC until now. I am trying it to keep monthly bleeding and mood swings to a minimum. BUT, I see some serious side effects (depression, acne, weight gain) - these seem worse than just dealing with the monthly symptoms and taking some pain relievers.

Should I STOP? Any advice from veteran birth control users?
Michele