I too am one of the many women who wishes that she would have seen this site before getting the Mirena! I thought that I was dealing with some sort of postpartum depression. My MD had me convinced that NONE of the side affects that I am experiencing are Mirena related. Now after reading all of this I know I'm not the only one!
I had my son May of this year. Before I had him my MD had talked to me about the choice of a birth control after birth. Well I knew very little of Mirena, but once my MD had explained it I was SOLD! No kids for 5 years (not looking to have my next one until about that time) and "little to no side effects." What could have been better. He was singing music to my ears about Mirena. 6 weeks after my c-section I went in for my follow up and was given the ok to get it. I was told that the procedure shouldn't hurt. Liars. I can't believe that they don't numb you for that. Hello.....YOU ARE MANUALLY DIALATING MY CERVIX!!! I bled that day and afterwards and the cramps were out of this world! The doctor just told me to take the left over vicodin I had from my c-section. Two weeks later the craps were still in full throttle!
A few weeks after the insertion I was starting to to become this other person. Mood swings and a total bitch came out of me. My poor husband got the bad end of it. He thought it was postpartum and just let it be. A while after that I began to feel bloated and I started to gain the pregnancy weight back. I wasn't eating any different so I know something was not right. Fatigue was another effect that set in around the same time. I thought it was just trying to adjust with a baby in the house but here it is 5 months later and I have no energy. I promised myself I was going to start going to the gym and I can't muscle up the energy to do that. I'm wiped out by the day's end with taking care of the baby and getting simple house chores done. Also my back hurts ALL THE TIME. I thought that it might have been from the epidural but now I think not. I've always had some breakouts but not that bad. Now I break out all the time, and they are bad. Not to mention that I'm getting breakouts all over my neck, chest and back. I've never broken out like this on my body before. Not even when I was pregnant. Even more recent is my hair that is starting to come out in alarming clumps. I can get a good fistfull in the shower when I'm ringing my hair out, another good one when I blow dry it, and then just randomly during the day. For the most part I've always had thick hair and I'm noticing a DRAMATIC difference!
I've made several calls to my md about the cramps and the things I'm going through and he asked me to just give it a few more months. I'm going to call ASAP and demand that this thing comes out!