I am a 30 year old mother of three young boys, and my husband and...

I am a 30 year old mother of three young boys, and my husband and I are pretty sure we are done having children, but not 100% positive, so we thought the Mirena IUD would be a great birth control option: no muss, no fuss, and it would allow us the time to make the decision later. I had mine inserted in April 2007. I bled for a few months on and off, had a seriously bloated stomach (that never went away), almost constant nausea, stomach pains both dull and sharp at times, and shooting leg pains. After I waited this all out, I thought the IUD was pretty OK. If someone would've asked me, I would've told them as much. The past six-eight months have been much rougher. I had constant vaginal discharge that was an effort to get out of my underwear! How gross is that? Periods came more often than before the IUD, sometimes only 2 weeks apart, they were longer and PMS was constant and horrendous. I felt terrible about how mean-tempered I had become to my kids and husband. I used to be the calm, even-keeled one who could laugh at three crazy boys! Now my husband has been on a mission to get a vasectomy because life has become so stressful due to how I handle everything with them. I began to resent my own children, was not interested in spending time with them because they annoyed me to the point of rage. I was ready to sign him up for the vasectomy as well! Listening to my instincts, I had the IUD removed on Friday. It did not hurt at all, was easier than a pap smear. Later that afternoon, for interest's sake, I googled IUD side effects, and have been unsure whether to jump up and down or cry ever since. I look back at all the things I worried about over the last almost year, never realizing any of them could have anything to do with the IUD. I could tell my hair was thinner, so I put myself back on prenatal and all sorts of other vitamins, thinking I was deficient. I couldn't figure out why I had fingerprint bruises all over the tops of my legs, so I worried about blood disorders until I researched that I had no other symptoms of those types of things. Then I just gave up trying to figure out what it was from. I thought my horrible headaches (which I never had in my life) were caused by stress. I was at the chiropractor for the first time 3 weeks ago because I've had neck and back pain since last June that would not go away. I also had to take tylenol a lot for leg aches and weird pains in my limbs. I thought the tiny hairs that started to pop up on my face might be related to the IUD, but I wondered how could that be? Mirena only gives localized hormones and they are not MALE hormones, right? I researched strokes and aneurysms because many days I felt so enraged, so upset by the littlest things my kids would do, I felt like my head might literally pop off. I wanted to make sure that I couldn't bring something like that on from getting so worked up! My husband and I have been married almost 10 years and he has never before advised me to get on an anti-depressant until I had the IUD. That made me even more upset, because I knew he was right, but this just wasn't me! My restlessness at night, lack of quality sleep, I didn't attribute it to the Mirena either. Even when I wanted to take a nap, I'd pop awake after 10 minutes, but still feel tired. The craziest thing of all is that I had anxiety to the point of panic attacks. I was never afraid of flying on airplanes until I had the IUD. Last June I got on a small jet to take a weekend getaway with my husband and almost had to get off. The claustrophobic panic kept coming in waves. The whole weekend I couldn't relax because I knew I had to get back on that plane to go home and it was unbearable. Mentally, the trip home was absolute torture. I had two more flights on tiny planes to take last summer after that, and fretted constantly beforehand to the point my heart would race, my face would flush, and I would almost have a panic attack just thinking about it. I had to go see my GP and get Xanax to make it through those next two trips. She and I both agreed it was probably anxiety about leaving my kids and worrying subconsciously about what would happen to them if something happened to me. Additionally, day to day worries and anxiety consumed me. I constantly worried about my own mortality, something horrible happening to my kids, something horrible happening to my husband, etc. I knew thinking negatively about that stuff was just not in my best interest, but I couldn't get those types of thoughts out of my head! My teeth ache all day because I have spent the better part of the last year grinding them in my sleep, something I've never done before. My heart did race at times and I found myself deep sighing a lot. Dizziness came and went sometimes as well. That is why, when my OB asked why I wanted it out, I simply told her it was making me nuts. I didn't know until afterwards, what an awesome decision I had made based upon my intuition. I am so thankful to have found out all this stuff is a result of that thing, and that I can look forward to an eventual full return to my normal laid-back positive self once my hormones readjust. Already I feel calmer, and tired, but in a good way (the way you feel when you have had a long day and can look forward to a hard sleep, not the crazy restless tired I've felt for so long). I just started my first period since removal, so we'll see how that goes. I'm sure it will take awhile for all my hormones to straighten around, considering how funky they had obviously become. My husband is a wonderful man who never minded using condoms before, and so that will have to do it until we do something permanent some day. I'm sure he will be thrilled to wear one at this point, since we basically weren't having sex at all before (the thought disgusted me), so what was the point of having the IUD anyways? Yes, like everyone else, I had NO SEX DRIVE. And, during sex, I was SO dry (kind of ironic, since there was so much discharge the rest of the time!) It just wasn't enjoyable. I am sure there are women out there who tolerate this thing with little or no side effects, but it sure seems like there are a lot who don't!! And what is terrible is that the doctors and the pamphlets all make it out to be so great and dismiss that these other freaky side effects are a result of the Mirena. Had I known that this was a possibility, I never would have thought twice about trying it, especially for the cost. I would advise anyone who asked me to stay as far away from it as possible.