Gut Feeling
I got my copper IUD fitted on August 21, 2017, the beginning of the end of my mental stability. My gynecologist promised me a birth control method that would not make me hormonal, based on her understanding of how the copper IUD was hormone-free, the understanding that she largely shares with the American medical institution. Two anxiety and depression fueled months later, in the pit of the darkest time of my life, I had a thought: could my IUD be causing me these issues? I searched Google for “copper IUD side effects” and the floodgates opened. Hundreds of women voiced their experiences with the IUD; it was so similar to my own, it was like I had written each of them myself. For the benefit of hundreds of women who are blindsided by mental health issues and other side effects they know are not normal, the American medical institution needs to perform more testing on the effects of the copper IUD on the female body.
The T 380A is a T-shaped, “copper wire wrapped” intrauterine device, also known as the ParaGard, which works by being fitted within the female uterus as a birth contraceptive (Monchek, 2010). According to Ruth Monchek (2010), author of SEXUALLY Speaking: The Whole Truth About IUD’s, the IUD prevents pregnancy by “releasing copper ions” into the uterus, disabling sperm from fertilizing a woman’s eggs. The copper IUD provides the luxury of limited side effects, as it’s expected only to increase period pain, bleeding, and other PMS symptoms, a small price to pay for the convenience. I, like countless of women who are fed up with hormonal birth control, relied on the IUD as my sole method of birth control, expecting to use it for its lifespan of 10 years.
The copper IUD has a rocky history as it is. Norman D. Goldstuck (2014) broke down the history of the IUD into three existing generations, explaining the complications involved with each. The first generation of the insert, composed of plastic, was discontinued due to “[allegedly having caused] infections due to its multifilament tail” (Goldstuck, 2014). One of these first-generation inserts compromised the reputation of the IUD during the 1970s and 1980s, as the controversial Dalkon Shield was a medical nightmare, causing the distributor to file bankruptcy and recall the IUD’s (Hubacher, 2002). Based on successful animal contraception, the second generation of IUD used the plastic as a “carrier” for the newly introduced copper (Goldstuck, 2014). While this generation was the beginning of the modern IUD, the “one size fits all” concept of the implant failed to acknowledge modern understanding of the female body, causing a lot of unwanted physical side effects like heavy bleeding and excessive cramping (Goldstuck, 2014). After a failed attempt to create an IUD which would “match the uterine cavity,” the third generation of IUD hit the market, its first product a failure due to “difficult insertion,” high cost and short lifespan (Goldstuck, 2014). While there were other third generation IUD’s released, their benefits fall short to those of the second generation, which is still in use today despite being anatomically inaccurate.
Ignoring the warnings from my mom about putting metal into my body, I was expecting to get my IUD fitted and get on with my life. I forgot I even had it in. I attributed my brand new symptoms of mental health issues to the stress of starting college, but the anguish became overwhelming. My brain felt foggy. I couldn’t plan into the future, analyze my thoughts, or see the bigger picture, which was all very frightening. Crippling depression, panic attacks and migraines had become a normal occurance. I was racking my brain, trying to understand where these terrible side effects were coming from, when they started, what changes I needed to make to get rid of them, but to no avail. It felt like I was drowning, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find my way to the surface. When finally, the thought popped into my head that these symptoms began just after I got my IUD inserted, I searched Google for “copper IUD side effects” and discovered that hundreds of women had experienced the same symptoms that I had.
Reading through the IUD horror stories of a semi-anonymous forum, Patient.Info, and the comment section on a popular motherhood blog, just two out of dozens of sites dedicated to the same topic, I found that of 45 women who had a copper IUD fitted, almost all of them claimed side effects similar to mine: anxiety (20), mood swings (23), depression or suicidal thoughts (18), headaches (22), bloating/weight gain (12), and low sex drive (12). There’s even a Facebook page dedicated to the topic, with over 9,600 likes, not to mention countless other forums, blogs, and websites in which people claim that the IUD caused them mental unrest, along with a multitude of other symptoms. While modern medicine seems to have no explanation for these side effects, Lesley Hoggart and Victoria Louise Newton (2013) published a study in a women’s health journal, Reproductive Help Matters, in which they examined 20 women who had “chosen the implant, and later discontinued it.” The study found that 9 of the women reported that the IUD caused them “mood swings and changes (including depression, crying, and being emotional,” as well as headaches and weight gain, just as many anonymous women online have claimed.
Paragard’s prescribing information sheet warns about possible side effects: pelvic inflammatory disease, difficult removals, perforation, and expulsion. How could so many women, both online and in the study, claim to experience such specific side effects without any of them being acknowledged by Paragard? This might be due to outdated information. Of the thirteen references made on the Paragard T 380A Intrauterine Copper Contraceptive prescribing information sheet, ten of them predate the year 2000, the earliest source coming from 1976 and the latest from 2003. While the contraception industry continues to fail to acknowledge the possibility of the copper IUD causing side effects unbeknownst to the medical institution, individual health care professionals are beginning to catch on to the “hidden epidemic,” as Michael Mcevoy (2015), a clinician, writer, and founder of Metabolic Healing refers to it, of copper toxicity and its relation to female estrogen levels.
Dr. Stephen Gangemi (n.d), a clinical nutritionist, states that in his “over sixteen years in practice” he has developed a mistrust for IUD’s, explaining that women can “respond in strange ways” to the metal, and compares the insert to a “small pebble in your shoe,” suggesting that a foreign object in the uterus can potentially be dangerous. He claims that the IUD could lead to “excess copper…being continuously released” in the body, which can cause abnormally high levels of estrogen (Gangemi, n.d), and Mcevoy agrees (2011). According to Healthline, symptoms of high estrogen can include “bloating, decreased sex drive, headaches, mood swings, weight gain, hair loss, feeling tired or lacking energy, trouble sleeping, and increased symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS)” (2015) which match up all too well with the side effects claimed by anonymous women online and in the 2013 study by Hoggart and Newton. Also claiming that the copper IUD affects “secondary sex characteristics,” Dr. Lawrence Wilson of the University of Natural Medicine in Santa Fe, explains are more about “mental and emotional” (n.d) health, rather than physical. This could explain why they’re often overlooked. Wilson claims that the effects of excess of copper in the “metabolism” can vary depending on the person, but are capable of causing “depression, anxiety, personal shifts and many horrible side effects” in women (n.d).
The ParaGard T 380A, also known as the copper IUD, is a widely popular method of contraception around the world. Between the bad reputation that was placed with the IUD proceeding the discontinuation of a first-generation model and the outdated information and shape of the device, it’s safe to say that the IUD has not been given the amount of attention that it deserves. I had my IUD removed on October 31, 2017, and as countless of the anonymous sources promised, my depression, anxiety, panic attacks, brain fog, and other abnormal side effects cleared up completely within two weeks. Given the amount of anecdotal evidence linking problems like mood swings, anxiety, depression, weight gain, hair loss, sleeping issues, low sex drive, and headaches to copper IUDs, as well as the research and opinions of individual health care professionals, there is clearly a problem that the medical society is overlooking.
References
Gangemi, S. (n.d). The IUD: Intrauterine Damage. Retrieved November 13, 2012, from
http://www.drgangemi.com/health-articles/hormone-health/iud-pain-problems/
Goldstuck, N. (2014). Reducing Barriers to the use of the Intrauterine Contraceptive Device as a
Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive. African Journal of Reproductive Health / La Revue Africaine De La Santé Reproductive, 18(4), 15–25. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24362040
Hoggart, L., & Newton, V. (2013). Young women’s experiences of side-effects from
contraceptive implants: A challenge to bodily control. Reproductive Health Matters, 21(41), 196–204. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43288975
Hubacher, D. (2002). The Checkered History and Bright Future of Intrauterine Contraception in
the United States. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 34(2), 98–103. doi:10.2307/3030213
Mcevoy, M. (2015, April 13). Birth Control: Copper Toxicity & Estrogen Excess. Retrieved
November 13, 2017, from https://metabolichealing.com/birth-control-copper-toxicity-estrogen-excess/
Monchek, R. (2010). SEXUALLY Speaking: The Whole Truth About IUDs. The
American Journal of Nursing, 110(6), 53–56. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25684602
Paragard Don’t GET ONE, Women helping women to be informed. Retrieved
November 08, 2017, from https://www.facebook.com/Paragard-Dont-GET-ONE-Women-helping-women-to-be-informed-183953164966198/
Patient.Info (2013-Present). IUD Non-hormonal Copper Coil Side Effects? (2014). Retrieved
November 08, 2017, from https://patient.info/forums/discuss/iud-non-hormonal-copper-coil-side-effects--216404?page=1#topic-replies
Wilson, L. (n.d.). COPPER AND YOUR HEALTH. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from
http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/copper_toxicity_syndrome.htm
