Pregnant with IUD?

So, I have the IUD Mirena. It was inserted in June of 2006. My periods have been very regular those 3 years. Every 4 weeks, and I bleed for about 5 days. Very light just need a panty liner. Now, all of a sudden I have skipped a period. My last one started on July 28, 2009. It is now Sept. 2. I have headaches, nausea, heartburn, and exhaustion. I am so tired. I am ready for a nap by 10:30 in the morning. My breasts are heavy and when I sleep at night, and pull my knees up, I feel a small knot. Can amenorrhea occur after 3 years, or could I be pregnant? I have read that after 6 weeks with out a period is a good time to get a test done. But I have lupis like anti-coagulant, and need to be on a blood thinner to prevent miscarrage (miscarriage) so I need to find out sooner.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Welcome to the forum. Since you are having amenorrhea since one month and the other symptoms are also suggestive of pregnancy, so I sincerely advice you to rule out pregnancy. Although Mirena is 99.9% effective, yet less than 1 will become pregnant with typical use as well as with perfect use.

Most pregnancies happen when Mirena IUDs slide out without them realizing it. Even though the chance of pregnancy while an IUD is in place is extremely low, if it does happen, you should have the IUD removed as soon as pregnancy is confirmed. Pregnancies with IUD increase the risk of pelvic infection, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage and early labor and delivery.

Ideally urine for pregnancy test should be done after 1 week of your missed periods date. So you can do a urine for pregnancy test at home by using simple pregnancy kits available in the market or aimstrip test which can measure hCG as low as 20MIU.You can also consult a gynecologist and get a serum hCG levels test done which is much more sensitive than a urine for pregnancy test. If pregnancy is ruled out then other causes of amenorrhea have to be explored. These include smoking, stress and anxiety, malnutrition, depression, over exercising, sudden weight loss or gain (obesity),thyroid disorders ,tumors of ovaries and brain and hormonal imbalance due to polycystic ovarian syndrome(PCOS).

I hope it helps. Take care and please do keep me posted in case you have any additional doubts. Kind regards.

[meme3906]

Birth control as we all know is not a 100%. In 90 I had etopic pregnancy and had my right tube taken out (the whole tube). But I was still bless with 5 babies with just my left tube (which is the amount I always wanted). So in 2007 I had my left tube burned and cut to make sure I was not going to have anymore babies. I just fought out that I am 7 weeks pregnant. I had a u/s to make sure that everything. The u/s showed the baby is doing great and all is well.

So you will never know for sure until you take the test to find out. Good luck!!

[omojesu]

I had IUD mirena on since July, 2004. I was told is for 5 years. But am still having it on, it is two month over the five years. am i at any risk of danger ? or it can stay more? And again, am having like a funny ticlish signs on my breast, i don't if it is because am still having the IUD on or not.

[Tasha505]

A related discussion, IUD users... comfortable? uncomfortable? Period Changes? was started.