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20902657 tn?1605201259

Copper IUD - really negative experience

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. :)
1 Responses
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134578 tn?1693250592
COMMUNITY LEADER
I don't think anything long-term has gone wrong, but it is a good idea to take the IUD out. In retrospect, they shouldn't have inserted it so early after a pregnancy. Go onto some other form of birth control, and let your uterus fully heal, and then have a uterine MRI to check for any scar tissue.
Helpful - 1
3 Comments
I thought so... I’m hoping nothing serious is happening as I’m getting all sorts of scenarios through my head. The whole process was not nice at all.

Thank you for your comment - it is really appreciated.
By all means get scenarios in your head, just know it's probably not actually a scenario in your uterus.  lol

Back when they were a thing, I had a Copper 7 (IUD), which gave me heavy bleeding and I had removed after only a few months. Later in life, after a successful pregnancy and birth, I had an incomplete miscarriage, with products of conception left in my uterus that took an operation to remove. After that, I had scar tissue in my uterus. At that point, it crossed my mind that the Copper 7 all those years before had done some damage. But in truth, I know it didn't. (I had a lot of imaging done of my uterus long after the CU 7, and before the miscarriage, so there was proof it didn't produce any scarring.) Point is, it's easy to worry about an IUD, especially if it has an ingredient like copper. But probably the cause of your bleeding was that your uterus was too fresh and raw after the pregnancy to put anything in it. (Not that IUDs in general, or even copper ones in particular, are damaging by themselves.) I think IUDs are a good idea for birth control, they work well for millions of women who don't have access to other reliable forms of contraception. But although I know doctors often do put one in right after a pregnancy, in my opinion, they should have let your uterus heal before putting one in.
I think now that you mention it, it would make sense that I reacted like this as my uterus was under a lot of stress during the pregnancy and then to have a copper coil fitted, it was never going to heal... I cannot wait to have it taken out.

It seems like you went through your fair bit of stress with it, too! Why does being a woman always seem so stressful lol I’m trying to remain calm and not panic but I’m so worried now that I’ll randomly start bleeding insanely heavy again! Sort of losing pleasure in life at the moment. Oh well... got a week till my scan.
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