Ladies, God gave us all that "little voice inside" that we cal...

Ladies, God gave us all that "little voice inside" that we call a woman's intuition. LISTEN TO IT! Unfortunately, I did not when it came to choosing Mirena as my first and only choice of birth control since I was a young teen first experimenting with sex. Well now, I am a day away from my 31st birthday and have been married to my high-school sweetheart for ten-plus years. After two kids and a miscarriage of twins, I decided I just didn't want to go through pregnancy again. So, little ol' me decided to be hip and choose a form of birth control that allowed me to be free and not have to worry about the likes of condoms...or spermicide...or those wretched birth control pills. If only I knew back then what I know now, however. I first got Mirena inserted the end of March 2007. Since then, my sex life with my husband suffered dramatically, because, first, I bled inconsistently (that is, I didn't know when my period was going to show up---every week, every two weeks, etc.); second, when my period did show up, it would last 8-11 days; and third, the wire attached to the device was painfully uncomfortable for my husband during sex to where we were limited to just a few positions, which made for a pretty mundane sex life. From a health standpoint, like so many other posters, I suffered severe hair loss. It had gotten to the point where I literally had a receding hair line and had to wear very weird-looking bangs just to cover up my hair loss. I stayed bloated and on edge from the anxiety I felt from feeling like the start of my period was just imminently hanging over my head, because it seemed as though I was always on it (because I did bleed more times times than not). The weight gain was horrible. I always felt insatiably hungry and looked up one day and realized I was a size 16...and barely squeezing into my clothes. I went on a diet, which went fine. However, I ended up coming to a standstill even after increasing and intensifying my exercise and lowering my calorie intake even more than I had. NO ONE 'til the day I die will be able to convince me it wasn't Mirena's fault for causing the initial weight gain and later stagnating my progress to lose weight. And, yes, there was a change in my personality. I went from a laid-back, independent, self-sufficient woman to one who was totally clingy, overbearing, and extremely jealous. But then, I turned into the worst person I had ever seen myself becoming: I then turned into a woman who just wanted to be by herself. And so, I was one phone call away from hiring a divorce attorney and leaving my husband and kids, because I just couldn't handle my every day life as it was. I did not know what was going on with me; I just knew I found myself having a total change of heart about everything in my life, even though my life was a pretty dang good one, according to all of my friends and family and even people on the street who would observe how well my husband treated me. Enough was enough, and I finally had Mirena taken out Friday, July 11, 2008, at approximately 11:00 AM! My life has totally changed. No lies. No embellishments. No exaggerations. I lost three pounds by that Tuesday, July 15. So, my efforts to reach my weight loss goal don't seem so futile now. Furthermore, my husband and I are as happy together as we were back when we were in high school; and, I can't even imagine not having the kids and him in my life. Oh, and my hair.... I no longer have a receding hair line. It's still going through that annoying growing-out phase, but at least it exists again!!! Looking back, particularly at some of these posts, something told me I was in for a nightmare come to life when my doctor was amazed at how I felt hardly any pain while he inserted Mirena. And even now how he and his nurse act totally shocked and surprised at all of the problems that I had while using Mirena just sickens me to the point of wanting to punch something. These medical professionals know. They get very nice perks for being in cahoots with these drug representatives and manufacturers by going along with making us, the patients, guinea pigs. Such low-life scum! I am hurt and totally pissed off by the whole thing. But still, I am thankful my life has returned to normal since having Mirena taken out. Nevertheless, be warned! Mirena is a steep, pricey sentence on one's life. So, you'd better be prepared.