Mirena and overwhelming sense

I have had my Mirena for 23 months - placed 6 weeks postpartum. Like most, I too experienced the usual breakthrough and almost consistent bleeding/spotting for the first 6 months with cramping, headaches, and weight gain. What I have also experienced is an overwhelming sense of exhaustion that has not improved but gradually worsened.

Around 4 months PP I realized that something was off in my body. I did not have any energy, didn’t feel like myself, super emotional and no matter what I would try I could not gain motivation to accomplish the task of maintaining my house. I was struggling with a feeling of fogginess and cloudy thinking. I've experienced hair loss, increase in breakouts, dry and splotching skin.

During the first year I would have 1-2 good days in a week where I felt energized and I would be fooled into thinking that I was on my way back to the old me. I could accomplish things, rationalize clearly and deal with life. The rest of the week though would slowly slip back into a drained, over emotional foggy state. At 15 months into having my IUD in place, my days of productivity were dwindling further and further apart.

I have been blessed to have a husband that truly loves me. However, even still he has had a hard time comprehending what I have been dealing with and it has taken a toll on us. He will often say you are just not a happy person no matter what. I know that I am not unhappy with my life in general, my husband or kid and yet he is right. This thing robs you of your happiness and sense of self.

For the past 2 years I have said over and over again that I know something is wrong. I simply don’t feel right. I have been very aware of the changes within myself. I have struggled to be an active parent to my child and I have struggled with the most basic tasks. Things that use to take me 1-2 hours could stretch into days now. I was once this extremely productive individual that now barely is able to get the simplest of things done. I literally put all my effort into trying to accomplish things yet it barely makes a dent.

Until I started doing some reading, and I have found there thousands of women going through the same stuff I am, I really felt like I was going crazy. These symptoms are so subtle and similar that they most often get passed off as PPD, or dealing with the pains of motherhood and stress of life. Up until 2 weeks ago I couldn’t even verbalize the fact that no matter how much I slept, took vitamins, or exercised that I still felt tired all the time and was experiencing an inability to be productive.

I've never responded to a site like this, but now feel compelled to. I had my Mirena fitted 13months ago, after a friend recommended it on the strength of her excellent experience with it. I was on anti-depressants already, so haven't felt an overwhelming sense of depression, but have been thinking for the past 10 months or so, that I get way more tired, have an overall achy body often, painful joints and swollen ankles. All stuff I never experienced before. But the thing that really did it for me was the weight gain. I was only slightly over normal weight at the time of insertion but have been gaining weight steadily. Initially I thought it was just a bit over over-indulgence, but after weighing myself last week, I've made the horrifying discovery that I've gained 13kg in 13 months!!!!!!!! I've never fluctuated more than about 4 kg in my whole life, eat healthily and am normally active. Nothing has changed to what I was eating/doing before. I specifically searched the internet today to see if weight-gain is a problem. It's not listed as a major side-effect on the 'official' sites, yet I see it on many of the postings on this one.
And for those of you who are into alternative therapies, I had myself checked with a kinesiologist for dietary intolerances/allergies that could have caused this weight issue, and what came up is that the problem is progesterone. When she checked if my Mirena was a problem for me, it came up VERY positive. When checked if I should have it removed, the response was equally positive.
It's a pity, as I had none of the other problems mentioned and it's such a convenient method of bc. But in my case it's coming out, before I have to come out as a seriously obese 41 yr old!!!!!