Why did I have my copper IUD removed ?
The copper IUD (Intra Uterine Device) is a contraceptive method that is still not widely used for nulliparous women (women who have never had children). Yet it is the choice I made when I stopped taking the pill 4 years ago.
Why this choice?
Personally, I wanted to stop taking the pill for several reasons : hormones, unpleasant side effects (no more libido, acne, completely smoothed out emotions…) and the more or less long-term risks for my body. Many sources mention all these problems and they can vary greatly from one woman to another. Stopping the pill is a personal choice and I want every woman to be able to choose her contraception with all the facts in hand before making her decision. Today, I am going to talk to you about the post-pill phase and the journey I have had during these 4 years.
I had wanted to go off the pill for a long time, but I needed another form of contraception, so I thought the copper IUD was a good alternative for me. When I made my decision I was faced with a wall because I had to find the practitioner who would be willing to give it to me. So a race was started to find him.
I was able to learn a lot about stopping the pill, how it works and its consequences on a French Facebook group. I have also discovered a great French annuaire that lists a lot of practitioners who respect women and their bodies and accept alternative methods to hormonal contraceptives. These two resources allowed me to take action and finally stop using the pill.
The IUD insertion
I don’t have a terrible memory of the pose, just some pain and several days of bleeding. Mostly I remember feeling liberated and happy to have finally managed to break through that wall that blocks us from choosing OUR method of contraception.
Cycles under IUD
It was around the time of my first period with an IUD that I started to be disenchanted. I would like to make it clear that my goal is not to scare you in any way, I am only here to share my experience with you. Every woman is different and you shouldn’t make generalities about the copper IUD.
In my case, I could see that my period was 3–4 days on the pill (for reminder, these are artificial periods), then 4–5 days off the pill and then 7–10 days on the IUD. I told myself that this was a bad for a good and that I preferred this situation rather than continuing to take artificial hormones. Except that in addition to the prolongation of my period, I started to feel very intense pain. Although they only lasted 2 days per cycle, but they were really horrible and unsupportable.
I had never experienced this before, of course there are women to whom it happens even in a natural cycle but for me it wasn’t the case, so I compare well with my own experience. I learned later that it’ s not normal to have very strong pain at the time of the period and that it is better to consult in this case to find out what is wrong.
After 3 months, I really questioned if I should keep the IUD or not. I reasoned to myself that it was ONLY 2 days to support and that I didn’t really have the choice if I didn’t want to get back into the hormone spiral. I tried various methods to help myself : hot water bottle, medication… Some of them worked a little bit better than others but I often asked myself the same question : do I stop it ? Those two days of pain at the beginning of each cycle were a real torture for me. I would like to point out in passing that you have to be very careful when taking medication because not all of them are compatible with the IUD.
The consequences of menorrhagia
The very heavy periods I may have had also caused me twice to have a heavy iron deficiency. One of them was strong enough to make me lose concentration and memory, for several weeks I was head in the air and couldn’t remember anything.
The results
I was browsing Facebook groups about contraception and came across Symptothermy (also known as the symptothermal method or NFP for Natural Family Planning).
You’re gonna wonder what the hell that is? I thought the same thing at first, but on closer inspection, I learned that it is a very reliable method (higher rate of effectiveness than the pill) when practiced seriously. The goal is to get to know your cycle and your body signals (temperature, cervical mucus, status of the cervix…) and how to interpret them. It can be used for contraception but also for conception or simply to observe your natural cycle. If you are interested in stopping hormones, I highly recommend that you learn more about this method which has personally changed so many things in my life. It has allowed me to regain the freedom I was looking for.
What about your IUD?
I decided to remove it after 2 difficult years to go to 100% on symptothermy. I started slowly by slowly learning about the method and developing new habits.
Symptothermy also has advantages and some disadvantages but it is much smoother with the body and allows the subject of fertility to be placed back in the centre of the relationship. I really appreciate this method because it allows me to only worry about contraception during my fertile period, which is about 10 days out of 30 for me.
With all these adventures, I realized that choosing contraception is a difficult choice because each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. It is still very difficult in our time to find a health care professional who will support us in this change. We must therefore learn to deal on our own and with the resources available to us on the Internet. It is also essential that our partner is in harmony with our values and realizes that it is not up to the woman to carry the entire contraceptive responsibility of the couple.
