Hi everyone.
I am a 24 year old female seeking to find women who have had the same or similar experiences to myself with the copper IUD.
To start off with, and please do not judge me, I really do not need it, I had a surgical abortion on 9 August at 13 weeks with twins. The procedure went fine and I had the copper IUD fitted during the same appointment. I bled for a week that was nothing unmanageable and began my recovery. Two weeks later, I had a small bleed, and four weeks after that, which would have been my first period I bled for a week or so which eventually ended. On 6 October, which would have marked my second period, I started bleeding and I knew that the copper IUD would cause heavy periods, and I was ready for it. However, on 13 October I started bleeding bright red, fresh blood that was literally gushing out and trickling down my leg. I went to the A&E Department straight away, however the only thing that they did was an ECG because my heart rate was increased due to anxiety and then I was sent to the hospital's GP who advised me to go on contraception, despite telling her I was on the copper IUD and she dismissed it to hormones. Very unhelpful.
The next day, the bleeding stopped so I decided to go to my GP to ask her advice. She said it was down to the copper IUD, she felt my stomach and was not concerned - everything seemed okay. The bleeding returned in the afternoon the same day, just as heavy and just as red leaving me a little anaemic. I decided to go back to my GP the next day who refused to refer me to a gynaecologist and my scan referral got rejected as it was all being blamed on the copper IUD and for me to stick through with it. The weekend was primarily filled with heavy heavy bleeding that was leaving me tired and depressed. At no point, though was I in pain.
On Monday I got sick and tired of it and decided to book myself in to remove the coil at my GP. The nurse found the threads but advised they were a little short and she could not get into the coil because of the severity of the bleeding and large blood clots. I was referred to the hospital the same day to have this checked out. Initially, the GP suspected retained conception tissue however my pregnancy tests all came out negative.
At the hospital, I was advised that my bleeding was unusual for a period and significant. My pelvic came back fine which ruled out cancer. I had a transvaginal scan which showed that the coil was in place but had a lot of tissue around it and some clots at the bottom of my uterus. They ruled out fibroids, polyps or anything else serious. I was prescribed tranexamic acid (4 x 500mg 7 days) and norethisterone (5mg x 3 times a day for 21 days) to suppress the bleeding. The bleeding died down massively as soon as I started taking norethisterone. I am booked in for another scan on 1 November to check what the tissue is/make sure all is fine up there. I have also booked myself in at the clinic to have this evil copper thing taken out of me.
I am just wondering has anyone else experienced something like this with tissue around the coil and insanely heavy bleeding? My gynaecologist told me to not worry and that he sees this sort of thing on a regular basis amongst women. I am, however, insanely anxious as everything that could have gone wrong, has indeed gone wrong.
Many thanks. :)