I have posted a couple of times previously about negative side ef...

I just want to reply to you and everyone else who is having difficulty with doctors acknowledging mirena side effects. I work in pharmaceutical research and what people need to understand is that clinical trials only test on samples of about 5,000 patients and the side effects observed in those people are the ones acknowledged in the literature your doctors are referring to. The problem with that is for a drug sample population to statistically represent the actual US population it would have to be at least 30,000 people. This is not feasible even for the most profitable big pharma companies. So once these drugs get to market, there are inevitably going to be people experiencing side effects not reflected in clinical trials.

That said, I had Mirena put in 6 weeks after giving birth to my son in August 2008. Pre-preg I weighed 132, at 9 months I was 173. I left the hospital weighing 152. When i got mirena inserted i had been loosing slowly due to beastfeeding, but I was loosing and weighed 145. By Christmas 2008 I weighed 155. So I started working out, circuit training 45 minutes, 5 days a week, and eating much healthier for 6 weeks. Like others assuming it was a change in lifestyle, stress whatever. I didn't loose a pound. After no success I cut down to less instense workouts but kept eating well. By June 2009 I was 163. At 132 lbs pre-preg at 5'4" I never worked out, I'm not kidding, ever and I was not a healthy eater, I just wasn't a big eater.

So August 10th 2009 at 168 lbs and fed up, I went to the doctor to have it removed. They insisted it was not the mirena, but if for no other reason I had to find out for myself why I could not loose weight, if i was still overweight afterwards then so be it, but I had to know.

I'm glad to announce that today September 21st, I have "inexplicably" lost 21 pounds in counting. I have not worked out like I did in those six weeks, brisk walks at the most,and I have continued eating healthy. I'm not advising anyone on what to do, I just know when I was contemplating getting this thing removed, I wanted to hear from someone who had actually gotten it removed. Also, I did not the emotional or dermatological side effects others described.

I had a similar experience with the Mirena...all of the nasty side effects that the other women have posted I experienced too. Had it inserted in April 2006, removed October 2006. The worst being, 6 months after insertion when all of my side effects were supposed to be diminishing, I was still getting severe cramping and bleeding...and for someone that almost never got cramps during my period, these bad boys would take my breath away. I was getting worried that maybe it was inserted wrong. The final straw was one night I was at a friend's house, planning for a Halloween party. I had been having my period for close to two weeks, and it was flowing heavy the whole time. I changed my tampon (started having to use Super Heavy's, for the first time in my life) and used a pantyliner. Less than an hour later, I went to the bathroom again...and to my horror had soaked through the tampon, pantyliner, and all the way down the inside of my jeans. I was so lightheaded, I almost passed out when I stood up. That was a Friday...I was at the OB/GYN's office Monday morning having it removed. Almost immediately, the bleeding and cramping stopped. Unfortunately, I ended up on antidepressants 4 months later because the mood swings/anxiety did not stop right away. Just recently, my new OB/GYN suggested/pushed ESSURE as an alternative to tubal ligation...but after doing my research on that, I think I will stick to the tried and true. Please make sure that you do your research too and make an informed decision.