I've had many conversations with friends
who are considering getting the IUD and
they say they're really freaked out
about the pain and just the idea of
having something inserted inside you and
I just tell them it's yeah it's like 15
seconds of pretty ouchie pain but and then a
little bit of cramping but it's worth it
because it's such a long term method of
birth control and you can I mean to have
five years of birth control and 15
seconds of pain is what you have to pay
for that? Like it's just yeah that's not
that's not something that should prevent
you from getting it.
My provider knew what she was doing she's done it a lot
so I felt very comfortable with her
doing it there was maybe a slight pinch
like when she like they at least my
doctor told me when it was going to
happen and she's like, "okay now try to
relax your muscles and you're going to
feel a slight pinch." You definitely feel
that but the cramping didn't start until
after I got back to my dorm.
I did have
some side effects the first few weeks
after getting it I had some spotting for
actually probably about three months and
then it went away and I haven't had any
issues since then but they said that was
to be expected so it wasn't a big issue.
I went in I took ibuprofen like about
three ibuprofen pills and the insertion
was quite fast and simple it was almost
like the feeling of a pap smear that
uncomfortable "somebody's in there"
feeling but it was quick. The pain came
afterwards as your body adjusted to the
Mirena and the way that I described it
was menstrual cramps. And that
pain probably lasted about two days but
I was able to just kind of stay home
watch some movies and take my ibuprofen I
didn't need anything else like any other
additional pain medications.
At first being
gender queer and kind of presenting
masculinely I had a hard time getting
the courage up enough to go to a health
center
and say like, "hey I'd really like to
learn more about the IUD." Getting an IUD
for me it was painful maybe for about 10
seconds but then I think I was more
proud of myself with the stories I had
heard from other people as far as pain
goes but it was a very simple quick
process I'd say it took probably about
10 minutes for the whole kind of start
to finish.
The insertion is kind of
like a pinch and after the initial pinch
your uterus cramps up immediately really
quickly and it is painful but not
unbearable the insertion is only one
minute and after that you just have
cramping. You know you kind of have to
bear through it until your uterus is like
"okay you know we're friends are going to
work together."
So when I first got my IUD
inserted the physician there she
explained to me like she had a model she
explained to me how it was going to work
what the process was and stuff like that
so when we went in it was very painful
like in the sense that you know
something poking and prodding. If you
squeeze something I was squeezing my
boyfriend's hand like really hard and
that helped a lot the doctor was like
talking and stuff like you know like
"it's okay we're almost there" you know
"you're doing great" stuff like that so
she was really she was really helpful in
that sense like it really calmed me down
I didn't feel like any like small pain
until maybe like an hour or so after
when I think the medication was wearing
down.
Obviously getting it put it in is not the most fun thing in the world to
do but I was mentally prepared for a lot
of you know cramping and pain and stuff
like that afterward you know people say
"ugh it's awful like you need
heating pads" and "make sure you take
like the day off of work" and all that
stuff and so I got mine put it in like
the afternoon and I had the whole
rest of the day off taken it off I've like
gotten heating pads gotten painkillers
gotten like you know a bunch of things
to sort of like take the edge off
Nutella like I was like I'm ready I'm
totally prepared for you know whatever
this is I'm like sitting there with
Netflix I'm like I'm good to go and then
nothing nothing happened. I was like okay just me
watching
House of Cards and I could have gone to work.
Well, the insertion process was very hyped for me
I had a lot of friends who had gotten
IUDs before and one of my closest
friends girlfriend had gotten an IUD and
he told me that she screamed the whole
time so I was terrified going into it
but luckily the nurse I had was very
nice and helpful and like minus five
minutes of some deep cramping it was
honestly like really okay. I think it
really depends on your body and how you
handle it and stuff but honestly I think
it's so worth it