#TeamNoBabies – Owning Every Piece with Mirena

 

**Warning: If you don’t want to read anything about my uterus please skip this post.  Keep on reading if you’re interested, but know that you’ve been warned so don’t let things get weird between us!**

 

“I still see the string.”  I actually might have done the praise hand emoji in real life when I heard my gyno say that at my annual appointment last week.  I’m on year three of my five-year implant and things are going really well.

 

So, if you haven’t read my previous Mirena posts and don’t feel like reading it now, I’ll do a brief recap.  I got my implant in November 2015 and didn’t experience too much pain during the procedure.  Everybody’s different so that doesn’t mean that you won’t necessarily experience any pain, it just means that I didn’t.  I also have an amazing gynecologist and team of nurses who made the procedure so easy.  I was also part of the small percentage of women who spot for up to 90 days after implantation.  It was never much, but it was annoying as all get out and I started freaking out when it lasted longer than 2 weeks.  I called my doctor’s office and spoke to my favorite nurse and she assured me that it was normal and that it would probably happen a little while longer, but there was a really good chance that that would be the end of my bleeding and spotting as long as I had the IUD in.  Well, she was right.  I haven’t used a tampon or liner in a very long time!  In fact, when I was filling out my paperwork before my appointment I realized that the last time I actually had a menstrual cycle was last September in Barcelona!  I don’t know if it was the difference in altitude or what, but that was the first time in over a year that I actually had to buy tampons and liners, and I haven’t purchased any since.  That’s one of the side-effects that I love about my IUD.

 

I was recently given the opportunity to participate in the ‘Own Every Piece‘ campaign and share why I chose a hormonal IUD as my birth control, and what I love about it.  Like many women, my first experience with birth control was pill form.  I did that for about a year, and it wasn’t my favorite.  It affected my mood and there were times that I forgot to take it so I would have to double up on some days.  Not good.  And it wasn’t just when I was traveling and in different time zones, it was when I was at home.  That was actually one of my reasons behind my decision to get an IUD.

 

 

 

 

I knew that I wanted something that I wouldn’t forget to take, and while the implantation process scared me a bit at first I’m happy I decided to do it.  I ended up going with a Mirena because it was the longest lasting one my previous insurance provider would cover.  I wanted a paraguard, and I honestly might get that when it’s time to get this one taken out in two years.  I know that sounds like it’s far away, but in reality, it’s only two more annual visits.  It’ll be here soon and I’ve already started that discussion with my doctor.  I’ll do some more research into it and make sure that it’s the right choice for me, and if I do decide that it’s not the right contraceptive for me I can always get another Mirena implanted.

 

 

That’s what I love about the ‘Own Every Piece‘ campaign, it normalized discussions like this.  Women’s bodies have been heavily policed, but topics like menstruation and contraception are still seen as taboo subjects.  In 2018!  I think that we need to be able to discuss topics like that with as much ease as we discuss the flu or getting our eyes dilated.  I was just one of the ladies interviewed for the campaign and from the looks of it we all use different kind of birth control methods.  I definitely recommend you guys check out the video below as well as the rest of the videos on the campaign’s website.  It’s one thing to read about different forms of contraceptives and how they may affect your body, but it’s another thing to hear it from the mouths of women like you and me!