Mirena and depression anxiety

Okay WOW! So interestingly enough, I was out w/ a friend last night and when I mentoned to him that I have Mirena-he pleaded with me to google it and find out the troubles that ppl were having. He said He almost lost his wife because of it(and by lost- I mean death) That got my attention. I told him, I thought I didn't have any problems with my Mirena... I don't even have a period ever-its great! I am truly glad he told me to look, and I am glad I read the other problems women were having. I had symptoms, that I didn't even realize I had; basically blaming it on stress or other things. I have Narcolepsy which is a sleeping disorder, and recently I was diagnosed with Fibromaylgia (s/p?) Anyways I have had my Mirena for a lil over a year; I chose it because I absolutely suck at remembering to take the "pill" everyday and I am a single mom, and I told myself I will not be in this position again with another child. (I know- a lot of "ands"...lol) Well Here is my symptoms that I didn't realize could be related. I had a nervous breakdown at Christmas last year.... I called my dad and told him he needed to go get my daughter because I didn't think she was 'safe' with me, I was balling my eyes out... I was so stressed and full of anxiety and the littlest thing would set me off-AND I knew it wasn't my babys fault, I didn't want her anywhere near me! I went to the doctor and got treated for - you guessed it manic depression/anxiety ( I have had a history of it- but NEVER this bad) She came home after a few days. However, I still get easily irritated, more easily then I should- normally I am a very patient person. I sleep all the time....ALL THE TIME, I suffer from eccessive Fatigue, and nothing I take seems to help. weight gain-yep I got that too... I am the heaviest I have ever been in my life! I weigh more now then I did when I was nine months preg. with my daughter. Bloating.... yep I got Bloating, I don't feel comfortable in any of my clothes- I absolutely hate to wear Jeans anymore, and Yes I do suffer the 'gas' problem too. I was completely embarrassed and thought I was all alone on the fear of making it to the bathroom on time... I am a grown woman of 30 (so I am still kinda young to have any problems like that!) Oh yeah...I do have the Hot flashes, people would tease me and tell me I was too young for that-DUH! I want to enjoy my daughter, she will be 4 years old in march, I want energy to do the simple things, to enjoy life again, I want to feel attractive again.... honestly right now I feel kinda hideous.... So I have two major positive I am facing... no pill to take everyday, and no period!!!! If I go have it removed; what will my cycle be like? will I bleed all the time, will it just last a long time at first and then regulate, I guess I would like to have a heads up on what to expect. then there is one more question... If I remove the Mirena and choose a different IUD; will it have the same side effects? I need a B.C. option that doesn't require me taking a pill everyday, and I already tried the depo-shot that was a bad one for me.... that was like one long, on-going period that never stopped(don't want that-lol) So if Anyone out there has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you so much!

Like many of you, I thought that the Mirena was going to be GREAT! My doctor had NOTHING negative to say about it! I have had my mirena in now for almost 2yrs. I just have to say, the weight gain is enough to depress anyone, I have even been on the slim fast diet & ate lean cuisine meals with it and I DIDN'T lose not one pound!! I am bigger now than what I was at 9 months preg.!! After I had my son, I had lost all my baby weight, all but about 3-5 odd pounds, but after I got the mirena put in, its been nothing but weight gain!!! It just keeps coming on!! I am ashamed of my weight! I also get horrible migraines, headaches, have depression for no apparent reason, really weird mood swings, I also used to get a pimple from time to time--NOT anymore, I have acne constantly and have even bought the Proactive kit and have had very little results, I feel like I am 82yrs old instead of 28!!! Haha, you want to talk about a sex drive, I no longer even have one!!! And when I do have sex, it hurts if my husband goes near my cervix, and lets not talk about the after sex pain, never mind, lets talk about it, its HORRIBLE! It feels like I am having contractions, it hurts so bad that get doubled over in pain, end up in fetal position for about 1-2 HOURS and even the following day I hurt & bleed!! And should I go on about my newly acquired MUSTACHE!!!! Oh yes. I have facial hair now as well!!! So, to any of you girls/woman who are considering getting the MIRENA---THINK HARD ABOUT IT!! Seriously!! My experience with it has been horrible! I will NEVER have them replace it when it comes time, in fact, I am opting to having mine taken OUT!!!!

Thank goodness it is not all in my head. For the past year, I have been feeling as strange as the comments I have just read. Life is hard in the first place, but since having this IUD, life has been hard and very overwhelming. I have had constant mood swings, at least 3-4 days out of the week. Not only do I feel extremely nauseated 10 days before my period, even after it has come and gone, I feel nauseated again a week later. I had hoped that this new method of birth control would give me new freedom to have relations with my husband without being overly concerned about getting pregnant due to the less likelihood of the device failing. Boy was I wrong. I don't even think about sex. Nothing for the most part that he does turns me on. I can't even concentrate on feeling sexual when we are having sex. I just want to hit him or flip out on everyone. I feel a flush of anger go through my body that makes me think of very dangerous ideas, such as harming myself or others that are not really doing anything to deserve my anger. I have been very paranoid about everything and feel that I can not trust anyone, especially when I am telling them how I feel. I think that they just think that I am crazy. I have had extreme pain in my back near my spine, which I had thought before reading your comments was perhaps a side effect from the epidural I received during my child birth. I also have extreme pain in my sacral and hip areas that I never had before. My stomach is bloated with more stretch marks than I had when I was pregnant, my feet hurt. And I have an uncontrollable hunger at times. My short term memory is passe'. In fact, I took off my engagement and wedding rings in the house and can not for the life of me remember where I might have put my engagement ring. I am going to have this thing removed as soon as I get on my husband's insurance, before I go completely mad and hurt myself or my family. In closing, who cares if our doctor doesn't believe these things are not side effects. The truth is that God created all of us with common sense to know if something is blatantly wrong with us. We need to be wise and take care of our bodies and minds. This is something that God expects us to do. We have to live up to our obligations and commitments to our families like we promised we would when we got married.zfcII.

For all of the poor girls who are searching "mirena experiences" because you are looking for a sure thing contraceptive-
This site is only for people who have had BAD experiences. Read them all if you want, but take into consideration they are the 3%, or whatever number, that had problems. None of these women deserved it, asked for it, needed it, or wanted it, but unfortunately their bodies responded to it in such an ugly manor.

Here's my experience so far....Had it inserted 8/06/08. Insertion was fine. Felt that speculum more than I could feel the actual insertion of the mirena.
Slight cramping afterwards...not immediately-went home and for like 20 minutes had cramps lighter than my period cramps.
For the first week bled lightly, second week had an actual period, week three and week four just spotting. The doctor told me this can go on for up to six months...kinda worth it if you think about it.
No acne problems so far, my hair is fine (and trust me, if my hair was thinning, falling out, or anything like that I would take the mirena out!), muscles and joints feel like they did before pregnancy, still breastfeeding (I know that they say that the mirena will make you produce less breast milk-tell that to my breastfed 13 pound 24 inch long 2 month old. he would disagree)
My breasts are a little tender and at first I was slightly bloated (less than if I were on my period) but that has subsided. Abstained from sex for a month after insertion per my doctor's orders, so I will come back and post if there were any problems with that...NEXT WEEK! yay!
Know that I understand the side effects could show up later.

Now again, EVERYBODY will experience something different. We are interfering with nature. Birth control is one of the most unnatural things we could do to our body.

Again, since this site commonly comes up when searching the mirena, I want for women to know that it might work for them better than it did for others.

Hi all,
I have spent the last 2 days on the Internet reading about Mirena; as a matter of fact, I had mine removed 2 days ago. For the last 10 months, my life has been horrible. I had the Mirena inserted in November of 2007, I was also coming out of a divorce, so I (and my doctor) was attributing my extreme depression, anxiety attacks to it. I started noticing that my hair was falling out and it just kept getting worse and worse. I went to see my doctor again and she said I had anemia (I was having very heavy periods and bleeding through my periods). Doctor said anemia causes hair loss. I went through different tests, saw a dermatologist, I always mentioned I had the Mirena, but no one seem to relate that to anything. I actually went on the Mirena site a couple of times, but the side effects listed there were very mild so I discarded the thought that the Mirena was causing my depression and my hair loss. There is no mention whatsoever about hair loss. Months went by, I kept seeing different doctors since my hair loss was getting worse and worse, my once beautiful, thick hair had become extremely thin, I have two holes on my scalp. I continued to bleed heavy and my ob/gyn said to give it some more time. My life was a complete mess, going to work was a struggle, dealing with my kids was a struggle, some days I would just lay in bed and cried for hours, I started to believe that my life had no purpose or reason. I was truly in agony, I am sure those of you who have gone through this know exactly what I mean. Anyway, I can't believe in all this months it never occurred to me to google mirena and hair loss....or mirena and suicidal thoughts, etc., etc. I thank you all for sharing your stories and I hope we can figure out a way to let all of those mirena users out there suffering that the answer to their agony is simply to have the Mirena removed. I look forward to my new life, new hair. It has been 2 days and I don't know if it is a state of mind, but I feel so much better already.
Thx
Jessica M.

I am soooo relieved as I have been reading everyone's posts. I am scheduled to get my Mirena out in a few days. I have had mine for almost 10 months, and have had headaches, dizziness, anxiety, lack of energy/concentration, and nausea. I just haven't felt like myself. I am 28 years old, and at times feel like I am 70!! I have had a constant headache for 2 weeks, to the point I have gone through tests to rule out anything serious. It finally clicked in my head the other day that it could be the Mirena, while I was taking a pregnancy test (the nausea is horrible). I will post after it is removed.. hopefully with good news. Thanks to all that took the time to post, good to know that I am not crazy. I pray that the removal helps my headache!! Does anyone else that suffers from side effects, notice an increase at certain times? My headache/nausea always seems worse in the evening.

I had my Mirena inserted about 4 months ago and I have felt like I'm falling apart ever since. I have experienced the following symptoms: numbness/tingling in arms and legs, EXTREME fatigue, depression, anxiety, acne on back, my hair is thinner, bloating, sore stomach, lower back pain, etc. Most recently, I have had a lot of heartburn and my voice is kind of hoarse. Also, when I went to the doctor, they did a urine test and found that I have a trace of blood in my urine. Along with this I feel like I need to pee all the time, but I seem to have no bladder infection. I am fed up with this device and feeling like total crap all of the time. I have no energy and can't seem to get enough sleep. The only thing good about this thing is that I don't have a period. Of course, my doctor swears all of these symptoms can't possibly be due to the Mirena, but I don't see how it could all be coincidental. Please let me know if anyone else is experiencing these weird symptoms like the bladder issue or the heartburn/hoarseness.

Like most of you state in your posts.........I cannot begin to describe how relieved I am to have found this site. I honestly thought I was losing my mind. I had Mirena placed in December '06. It was uncomfortable during the actual procedure, but not too bad. Then within a day or two I was in severe pain and bleeding like crazy with severe lower back pain. I was told to take ibuprofen and allow my body to "adjust". I went for my follow-up ultrasound and the placement looked fine although I was still bleeding like crazy and very uncomfortable. After several more calls they brought be back in for another ultrasound, told me that my uterus must have gotten bacteria in it during placement and that I had an infection. They sent me home on antibiotics and pain medicine. I bled pretty regularly for 6 months straight accompanied by lower back pain, fatigue, and headaches. Finally the bleeding let up only to be followed by a multitude of other nasty side effects. Depression, anxiety, fogginess, forgetfulness (severe), waking up with headaches every morning, nausea (to the point that I can't tell you how many pregnancy tests I've taken), weight change (redistribution, thicker waist, tummy, and hips even though actual number only changed by about 5 pounds), feeling swollen and bloated when I wake up in the morning, NO libido whatsoever and feel like crying during sex because it's nearly impossible to reach orgasm (this has never been a problem previously), hair loss (becoming more noticeable over time), dandruff, boil-like acne on my face and back, dry eyes and blurred/double vision, chronic yeast infections and dryness in that area too. The list goes on and on. I went to three different doctors and had tons of bloodwork done, all came back normal (thyroid, hormones etc....) I was told over and over that it couldn't be the Mirena. HA! How can this many women be delusional? I called last week and got an appointment for May 20 to get it removed. After reading this forum my husband called the doctor himself and I don't know what he said, or how he managed to do it.........but I'm going in tomorrow morning at 10:20 am to get it removed and you better believe I'm going in armed with this website and others I've found. Physicians need to be more aware of this! Even if it's not common, it's miserable for the 1 in 1,000 woman who gets the worst of the side effects. It's literally ruining my life and my marriage. It's impossible to be a good wife and mother when you feel terrible everyday.

-Amanda

Hello I am 25 years old and just had the Mirena inserted April 4th 2008. I just gave birth to a beautiful son January 14th of 2008. I thought the Mirena would be a great idea for birth control since I am living with my boyfriend and I didn't want any unwanted pregnancies. I have never been on an form of birth control before besides condoms. During my pregnancy I would say that I was highly emotional and had a very difficult time, but I think it was due to the pregnancy being unplanned and it being a very dramatic life-changing experience. I'm not sure if I had post partum..because it seemed as though everything I was going through was normal. The insertion went swimmingly for me, probably because I just had a baby. It wasn't too painful, just felt like period cramps. However this past week, I have felt so sick and tired I'm just wondering if the Mirena could be the cause. I didn't bleed right after insertion too much, but I am still bleeding. Not heavy, just enough to be annoying and to ruin my underwear. I think there was a day when all of a sudden I felt very nauseous. This past week since Monday, on and off I have had flu like symptoms where I haven't been able to keep any food in my stomach. I developed a rash on my face Monday of this week,which is now still there but is going away. and now I can't seem to come up with enough energy to go throughout my day. This is difficult because i have a 3 month old and I'm trying to take care of him at the same time. All i want to do is sleep, I have severe headaches that make me want to close my eyes and sleep with no light in the room. I am also breastfeeding. My doctor knows this...but it mentions in the pamphlet to let your doctor know...and I'm wondering is that a problem? As far as the emotional part goes, I've felt like my life has ended...very dramatic, depression symptoms to the point where I've thought of suicide at least 5 times this week. Crying, wailing, not feeling good about myself at all. It's awful. My boyfriend thinks its the Mirena and told me to look it up online. I'm glad I did because it seems like other people have the same symptoms. It also says side effects can last up to 6 months. I don't know if I should wait that long because I just got it, for the side effects to go away..but I think I will just as long as I know in my mind that I'm having side effects and I'm not really a crazy woman.

I am 23 and I have had Mirena almost a year. It has been one of the hardest years of my life. I have had the worst depression, anxiety, headaches. The depression got to a point that I was even suicidal and I have never been that way. I have been so angry. In the past month I have started getting lightheaded very easily. I am on an emotional roller coaster. I was thinking I was going crazy until I found this site. I am calling my doctor right now to set up an appointment to have it removed. I can not keep living my life like this.

Many strange things have been happening to me for the last year and a half, that I did not ever experience before. I just turned 38 years old. I am now suspecting these are side effects from the MIRENA. I want to get opinions about what I'm experiencing and what happens when it's removed.

The most profound thing is the feeling of being in a mental bubble. Even though I'm aware of it and I try to be alert, I feel cloudy minded and can't even rely on myself to remember things or commit to things because I never know how I will feel when I wake up each day. Some days are okay while others are completely LOST because I may have struggled to sleep the night before, sweating and soaking my pillow case and waking up with a rapid heart beat, panicking for no apparent reason right out of sleeping. Or, I'm irritable due to discomfort which takes several forms like these:
- major moodiness, like feeling totally peaceful one minute and then something small triggers me and I'm angry for hours, later realizing that I was overreacting
- visibly shaking hands, especially when I drink just 1/2 cup coffee.
- increased oily skin and acne on face, back, shoulders and even in ears, along with thinning hair around face
- fatigue and stiffness in the morning, so it takes me forever to get out of bed
- off and on fatigue that has me uncontrollably dozing off during the day
- bloated tummy (visible), gas and menstrual cramps in no predicable pattern, but I never go more than a week without these things
- strange libido, one day I wouldn't care if I ever had sex again, the next night wake up horny as heck at 2 am
- ears ringing, jaw pain, mystery pains in back and joints regularly

All along I've been assuming these odd things were stress and age related but the more I think about it, there's just too many things, and these things don't necessarily represent the stress of a typical stay at home mom.
Sure, I have had stress and anxiety in the past, but they could always be connected to something large going on in my life. Now, the anxiety and moodiness hit unpredictably and indiscriminately, it seems. For a long time now I feel like I'm a total mess physically and mentally, even more so because I realize something is wrong
I am pretty sure as of right now that I should get this removed. If the symptoms go away I'll then know what caused them in the first place.
I am wondering what happens upon removal, will it also be a roller coaster of physical and mental anguish???????? How long will it last?

hey everyone ,penny here am having hair lose with Mirena and doctor says not for sure its from Mirene what is yall advice.

Hi Danielle here, I have posted in the past, I was wondering if any of you that suffered from anxiety, and nausea post Mirena, when did you see an improvement, was it after a couple cycles? Are any of you on an anti- anxiety meds? They say that when the anxiety goes that the rest follows, is there truth to this? I am 4 weeks post removal and I still wake up with the feeling of dread, I take Lorazepam to help, but I am sick of taking a med I just want to feel like "me" again, what an uphill battle, while I do notice an improvement these pat 2 weeks to the 1st two weeks I am still very concerned about the anxiety and nausea, I went to the mall yesterday for 3 hours, and came home a wreck! crying, dread, I hate it, can anyone please tell me when I should expect to see an improvement? I know it is different for all but any information would be appreciated.

Hello,

My name is Danielle, I am a 27 year old with 2 boys 6yrs and 8 months, I am happily married and have always been quite happy and relaxed until I had the Mirena IUD put in. I had the IUD placed at the end of October with advice from a friend and my ob of 7 years. Big mistake, here is my story, I hope it help someone.

4 Saturdays ago at work I felt pain in my ovaries, I chalked it up to ovulating, Sunday morning I felt a bit better, I got out of the bath on Sunday night and I felt weak, dizzy, like I was going to pass out, my heart was beating so fast, I placed an emergency call into my ob, she basically told me the IUD was not the cause for these symptoms and to relax and try to get rest...(she basically told me it was in my head) Monday morning I was terrible, nausea, anxiety, nervousness, depression, rapid heart rate... I called my ob and demanded an appointment to get the IUD taken out, as I had never felt that way in my life! I was able to get in that afternoon, however when I got there I was seen by a nurse that I have not seen in the office ever, and I have been with them for 7 years, this I thought was odd but I went with it, she brought me into the room and told me there is no chance that the IUD was causing my symptoms, I was very emotional over the situation, she told me to give it a bit longer and she gave me packets of Lexapro a depression/anxiety med. Me like a fool went along with it, I took a Lexapro when I got home at noon or so and at 7:30pm I thought I was having a heart attack, I came down stairs and my husband immediately knew something was wrong, I was crying, my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest, my arms and fingers on my left side were numb and I was freezing and could not stop moving! I went to th ER and was treated for an anxiety attack and I had the ER DR take the IUD out, from here I was hit with the infamous "Mirena crash" the next two days I was sick but nothing I could not handle, on Thursday I was so sick I could not move off of the couch, I mean sick, nausea to the point it was hard for me to sip water, I had to have a relative come to watch the kids while my husband brought me to the ER once again, I was treated for dehydration and nausea, during all of this I was still depressed and anxious which made it all the worse, my 3rd and final trip to the ER was this past Sunday the 8th, I was so depressed and sick, I made an emergency call into my family physician this time and he told me it sounded like the anxiety was getting the best of me to take a half of Lexapro to calm myself down and to schedule an appointment with him in the morning, I did and 6 hours or so later I was in the ER again, heart palpitations, anxiety, depressed so bad I hated my self and thought I was going crazy, I felt like I could not take care of my own kids, like a terrible wife, and the list goes on, this attack was so bad my hands formed into fist and would not release, at the ER all of my blood work came back fine, EKG fine, chest x-rays fine??? they gave me Loranzapam which has helped quite a bit. it has been about a week since then and I am beginning to feel better, each day seems to get better, I still have some nervousness(kind of feels the I was just told I had to go in for a major surgery) and some nausea through out the day, but overall I feel better. I do not wish what I and many women have been through on my worst enemy. Please all of you that think you are going crazy you are NOT, and believe me I was bad, I was on the internet every 10 minutes looking different things up about depression, anxiety, everything, it makes you go nuts, please remember that even after you get the IUD out that you may still feel yucky, I did and still do somewhat, you have to give your body time to produce it's own hormones and not synthetic ones from the IUD, keep in mind that some times you will feel like everything is ok and other times you will feel crazy again, it is the nasty remnants of the IUD. Good luck to all of you who are going through this now. God Bless you all. Danielle

I had my Mirena removed on December 9, 2007. I inserted that damn thing on July 26, 2007 and that was the first night i tossed in bed for 4 hours. One week later my physician prescribed Ambien CR for insomnia. It's gotten so bad since then that not even two Ambiens put me to sleep. well, fast forward 4 months, and two $200.00 visits to a hypnotist, and absolutely crazy depression(from not sleeping for nights) I finally associated the two. I removed this thing that's been destroying me, my marriage and my two kids. It's only been two days and i still couldn't sleep. but I am giving my body a chance to detox. Can anyone tell me how long it takes to get rid of these side effects? I can't wait.

Hi, my name is Claudia and I'm from the Netherlands. I have had the Mirena for about ten months now, and am gonna get it to be taken out next Wednesday. I have had nothing but trouble since day one. Nausea, depression, anxiety attacks, numbness, neck pain, migraines, IBS, hair loss, and very painful breasts with swollen milk glands. My GP said he didn't believe it was all caused by Mirena, and put me on anti-depressants. Now I know for sure that I'm doing the right thing by having it taken out. The nausea was so bad, I thought I was pregnant because it felt exactly the same. And hair started growing in my face, and falling out from off my head... terrible. And I got these pregnancy-like spots in my face from sunlight....