Background: 45 years old, 3 grown children. I was on the pill from the time my last was born and for 16 years afterwards until I got tired of the hormonal side effects (mainly weight gain, headaches and brain fog) and told my hub that's it - I'm done with hormonal birth control. Well - 6 years later, I got tired of the heavy periods that I hadn't had to deal with for over 20 years (between having babies and being on the pill) and looked into the Mirena. My oldest daughter had one placed after the birth of her (surprise) son and she absolutely loves it. I decided to give it a try since the hormones supposedly stayed in the uterus and shouldn't cause the familiar bc pill side effects I had previously. I had the Mirena placed in January, 2009 right at the end of my period and it was excruciatingly painful but the pain subsided within a few days. I pretty much continued to have a "period" for the next 4 months - it was non-stop and would alternate from bloody to brown to clearish-brown and then maybe 2 days later I'd be back to blood again. My gyn told me to be patient - that can happen for several months - some women take longer than others to get past that stage, especially if they had heavy periods prior to having the Mirena placed (of course I'm one of those "lucky ones" - figures). Over the next couple of months I noticed the discharge started to slow down, but it started smelling funky - not like an infection or anything - just not pleasant. Again I was told it was normal and there was nothing wrong. During the course of 6 months time I had put on nearly 20 pounds of weight even though I hadn't changed my eating habits. My breasts were so sore right before my period that I literally felt like I had to walk around with my arms out away from my sides for days at a time and god help my husband if he even went near them. I have noticed I've again been having the headaches I had when I was on the pill, and most recently I have started having hip joint pain on my right side. It feels as if I'm 80 years old some mornings - I can barely get out of bed! It goes away somewhat during the day, but is almost constantly there - especially if I lift something (like my grandson) or sit on anything other than a hard chair. I literally cry out loud if I forget and stand up from the wrong position - it's almost like my hip is popping out of joint it hurts so bad! Again, the doctor says this shouldn't be a side effect from the Mirena, but there is no other cause she can find. She has ruled out arthritis, etc. - everything looks normal! I have searched online the past few days and see that there are many women who have this same side effect and it makes me wonder why the heck we were not informed of this in the literature. I am in tune with my body and know this isn't in my head - and none of it started until I had this blasted thing inserted. In the meantime my daughter is telling me it can't be the Mirena - she's had no problems with it at all, but it can't just be a coincidence that all of this started once it was placed. I truly was hoping this thing would get me over the hump until menopause, but at this point I am ready to go back to dealing with heavy periods again if all of the other symptoms will go away after I have it removed. If ANYONE has had a similar experience, I would LOVE to hear from you and what you did about it!