Mirena or no Mirena...That is the Question

***WARNING***

Don't read this if you aren't interested in reading about birth control

After B was born, my doctor and I discussed birth control.  I have a blood disorder called Von Willebrand's disease.  For most of my life I've never had any symptoms of this.  About a year before I had O I started bleeding about 2-3 weeks out of every month.  We changed my birth control 2-3 times when the hubs and I finally decided that I would just stop taking it, and if we got pregnant, then we got pregnant.  I mean, we had been married for almost 3 years, so having a kid wouldn't be a shock to anyone.

After I had our first baby girl the bleeding 2-3 weeks out of every month continued.  I was taking oral birth control for 6 months.  It didn't help control the bleeding like we were hoping.  Six and half short months after I had my first child, we found I was pregnant with our second baby girl.  I know, it was a surprise to us too!  After our second child was born my doctor told me that Mirena would help decrease my bleeding and probably make it go away altogether.  So...I had it inserted.  After bleeding like that all.the.time, who wouldn't have had it done? 

Like everything else I do, I went into this blind.  I didn't do any research.  After I had B, I had a bit of post partum.  One of my doctors put me an antidepressant.  I took it for about a month and a half or two months (maybe 3 - I can't remember) and then eased off of it.  I was fine.  In June 2010 I had the Mirena inserted.  I thought it was going to be great.  My bleeding didn't slow down at first.  For about 6 months I was bleeding 2 weeks or more out of every month.  Now I am bleeding for a little more than a week about every 2 and half or 3 weeks.  I started gaining weight and having terrible mood swings.  Everytime the girls whined or cried or fought, it would get on my nerves and I could feel my blood pressure rising.  I had to start taking the antidepressant again just keep my mood stabilized.  I had some of these same problems when I was taking Ortho tricyclen.  When I got on a lower dosage birth control the mood swings tended to not be as bad.  When I completely got off of birth control the mood swings disappeared.

I was reading some blogs that I subscribe to, and I ran across one that talked about how Mirena made her crazy.  She pretty much had all of the symptoms I had, only she had more.  I decided to start reading what people were saying about how Mirena affected them.  I looked at the Mirena website and all of these symptoms are listed.

I tell you all of this to ask...

What are your opinions on Mirena?  Do you have it?  Do you know someone who does?  Do you/they like it? Do you/they have these symptoms?



Do the symptoms outweight the benefits?

Right now I can't say they do.