Para Gard?

[Viestar]

Hi, I am considering using the IUD para gard which is hormone free, and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it?  Thanks for any info!

[Navymom777]

I had my Paraguard put in on August 25 2011 after an ablation, the procedure was suppose to stop  heavy bleeding and I thought the Ablation didn't work because I would still spot and bleed for at least 10 days. Also I could feel it inside of me. So I decided to have it removed and lo and behold, the ablation worked. No periods. Ha...so excited about that. I did notice the funky smell during my period, but I wouldn't say I gained any weight. I actually lost about 10 lbs after having it put in. But only with great effort to lose weight. Much happier without. Good luck to everyone!

[calikrista]

I had the paraguard IUD put in 9 years ago, when I found out that I couldn't use hormonal bc for health reasons.  I was 22 years old and had never had children.  I will be honest about the initial insertion - it was not a picnic.  I don't believe they gave me any drugs to dilate my cervix.  There was a little pain when they inserted it - more like a pinching.  However afterwards I had to lay down for a while, since the nerve endings on the cervix make you prone to passing out.  After about 10 minutes I felt fine and left, but had to stop and rest on my way out to the car when I started getting light-headed again.  I drove myself home okay but it would've been smarter to have someone pick me up.  When I got home there was cramping pretty bad, but I curled up on my bed for about 4 hours and went to sleep.  When I woke up I was fine. Just a couple of crampy twinges every now and then for the next couple days then nothing after that.  I never had any negative side effects, although it's important to mention that I had light periods with little cramping before the IUD.  I noticed slightly more cramping but nothing I would even take a pamprin for.  A couple of years later during a regular checkup they found the IUD had slipped (this had probably actually happened back within the first month of insertion) and they had to remove it.  When they remove it they literally grab the string and yank it out of your uterus.  Not as painful as it sounds, I promise!  They put another one in and this time I only had to rest about 5 minutes and then was able to drive myself home no problem.  I didn't have much cramping afterwards, I even went back to work that same day.  I recently had my IUD removed because my husband and I are TTC.  However I never had any problems with it the whole time it was in.  The first IUD was in for about a 1 1/2 and the second IUD for 7 years.  I just wanted to share this story because I think it is a great option for many people.  Like anything, some people can experience unpleasant side effects.  But don't necessarily let that discourage you - remember, if you don't like it, you can always remove it.  Removal is quick and can be done in your regular OB/GYN's office.

[TednGilbertAZ]

I'm new here and I think I posted this in the wrong place, so forgive me if this double-posts...

I have also had a few concussions... at age 7 being knocked out being hit with a large rock, at age 8 in a bike accident in Culpeper, VA. At age 9, I was knocked out with a concussion in a rollover auto accident, also in VA. At age 20 here in Phoenix on Christmas Eve 1980 as a passenger in a severe auto accident (that led to a traffic light installation), I suffered severe head trauma with a massive welt on top of my head that hurt to touch for months and was diagnosed with a TBI (traumatic brain injury). Trying to resume touring that spring, I had to pull myself from the road in the midwest weeks later suffering many symptoms, especially a 'fuzzy feeling' of feeling 'high' or 'buzzed' creating depth of field issues, headaches, memory issues (affecting my performances) and personality changes. I had PCS diagnosed after returning home and stayed home from touring for two months and was fine until the next tour late summer where I reactivated/reinjured that soft spot on the beach along the Jersey shore (spare me the jokes) from a rogue wave that capsized me with my head roughly hitting the ocean bottom during some recreation on an off day. barely a week later, I was back in the Valley off the road for another two months of recovery and resumed touring through 1983.

I was never quite the same afterwards, however, but only minorly affected UNTIL I suffered an organic ABI (acquired brain injury) summer 1985 where I was unknowingly chronically exposed to Carbon Monoxide from a gas water heater that leaked into the AC return air duct for 3 months then acutely exposed for 45 minutes once the leak was found. I had similar symptoms to my PCS, but many more added to much greater depths and permanency such as lack of concentration/focus, short-term memory loss, double vision, dyslexia, occasional brief feelings of 'losing it' and a sexual orientation/attraction shift - I'm bisexual - but was born straight. I had the 'fuzzy' symptoms again for several weeks or months, especially during my college courses I never did complete after multiple attempts to finish my degree. Still, to this day when trying to memorize things or from reading novels, textbooks, manuals or especially sight-reading sheet music my brain simply overloads and I cannot encode information from text to brain easily without massive repetition - if at all. No complaints, though, as toxicology tests showed I had ten times the lethal amount of CO in my bloodstream and miraculously survived, albeit greatly changed or altered.

Recently, I had THE worst year ever for my crippling headaches in 2011, practically living on Excedrin Migraine - not sure what escalated them, although I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Carcinoid Cancer. I still feel varying degrees of pain to the touch on the top of that soft spot and I bumped it against a wall recently creating a few of those recurring symptoms on top of my CO poisoning symptoms. I wonder what can be done in regards to this and if I have neurological disorders that do not show in previous MRIs. The whole Junior Seau suicide tragedy brought all this to light, so I am reaching out, albeit as a guy on a women's forum - I found this forum/thread through a100% match of a Google search, FYI. Thanks for your input... Ted in Gilbert, AZ

[UniqueJ]

I Got my IUD Para Gard (non-hormone) put in 07/2011 and when I first had it put in I had the worst cramp that I have ever experienced. I cramped bad after that for at least 4hrs. Days later I had spots here and there nothing major. Until I began to get cramps with them. It wasn't unbearable or anything, they we're like my usual menstrual cramps. Each month my menstrual did the same thing;spot like a week before, mild cramps, then the first day will began. I still had my usual days (4days) and I came on around the same time every month.  Well its now May of 2012 and I have had the same routine every month and on my first day of my menstrual which was yesterday. I was cramping sooooo bad and my flow seemed to be heavier and once I came in for the night I used the bathroom and looked down to see that my Para Gard feel out...I do not know how but it scared the mess out of me. Has this every happened to any of you ladies?

[hottdanni]

well i've had mine out for a week now, my appetite has already halved my skin had cleared and i feel so much more at ease.

[Muuffu]

So Im supposed to get the para guard inserted or attempt to in aprox. 5 hours from now. I'm 21 no kids so I'm expecting it to be painful, despite already taken the drug to help dialate my cervix and being on my period. Im prepared to deal with the obvious side effects of the changes it would cause to my period and potential cramping. Also, I highly doubt I'd suffer much cramping worse than a pain level of 5 Just because that's how my body is. My flow would prob get very heavy, but wouldn't bother me - just cost me more for tampons and ruined underwear. But im canceling my appointment and here's why -

I've currently been off all birth controls for 4 months. The pill worked well for me when I was younger, but after 19 I started experiencing this strange unexplainable feeling of apathy towards the pill. I can't really put it in to words other than that I had no motivation to take and would have it, and remember it, but was incapable of taking it. If so, out of guilt and not properly so rendered it useless. I didn't want to get pregnant or anything, I just couldn't do it anymore. My friend experienced the same thing and doesn't know why either. So after meeting my current boyfriend over a year ago I decided to get birth control after being off and on the pill for 6 months. I tried the nuva ring, thinking that perhaps it was the daily regimine of the pill that was my problem. That was a bust - I had no sex drive what so ever. I wanted to want to have sex again so I'd wait a week after my period before I put a new one hoping it would make a difference. After awhile and tension between me and my boyfriend and our lack of sex I stopped all together using the ring.

The following month I was a wreck crying all the time, being a crazy woman and mood swings I had never experienced before. After 2-3 months I started feeling like myself again. And it has felt so good to be finally off the hormones completely. My sex drive is back to normal and my moods are normal. But my boyfriend insists I get birth control because condoms are not an option and we've had close calls where I had to buy the plan b pill. If I had it my way, I'd stay of birth control for ever - but not trying to get pregnant. So when I heard about para guard I was so happy because it has no hormones. I thought I found my answer to my birth control problem. I didn't necessarily want an IUD ever just because I feared long term birth control methods would be worse for my mood and labido. So I went to the Gyno and they are against iuds in younger girls becayse of higher stds risk. But I'm not at risk of stds because I'm monogamous and have been for some time so I stressed that I wanted this IUD.

I came across this forum from googling paraguard ( for the millionth time) and after reading all of these stories about copper toxicity, which I had not previously read on any site, I realized that I was so focused on the fact that it was hormone free that it never occurred to me the possibility of copper affecting my body negatively. Then I spent the past few hours reading about copper how it interacts with your body. I found that unbalanced copper levels cause a whirlwind of problems - whether too much or too little. Those with higher copper levels tend to experience anxiety and rushing thoughts. With higher copper, it countereacts the levels of zinc, which makes it harder to relax and can lead to insomnia. If too much copper for too long, it's possible to lead to psychological disorders like szchizophrenia. I learned a lot of stuff beyond that and recommend researching it yourself. I came to a conclusion that I higher levels of copper already - explains my insomnia, anemia, anxiety, joint and nerve pain, amongst a bunch of other seemingly uncorrelated issues. Though I will follow through with the nutrient hair strand tests to insure, my high copper levels are prob not natural and are easily avoided. I plan on experimenting with the suggested diet of lots of fats and oils and take more zinc and b vitamins to see if I'm right and have too much copper. But then I become very worried about how I'd react to the Paragaurd - if my panic attacks and anxiety and insomnia ( which come and go) are related to periods of higher copper, then things could only get much worse and more frequent for me. I can't handle the even slight chance of my anxiety increasing - I will go insane or have panic attacks everyday and have to take Xanax all the time and become a zombie.  

For this reason I am no longer going to even try and see if it works for me because my sanity is way more important to me. I recommend that if you have even the mildest levels of anxiety and have even ever had a panic attack not to try Paragaurd or take it out immediately. I don't even have that serious of anxiety, im not medicated and only experience it occaisinally.  But if copper causes increased anxiety, and I already have higher levels of copper, there's no way Paragaurd wont effect me negatively, it'd make no sense. Im so glad I read these posts and came to this conclusion. Im going to forgo months of hell no thanks to the doctors who even mentioned that copper toxicity would even be a side effect. Do they just not know its a possibility? I don't want to make my life more miserable, so if you inform me of the potential side effects I'm not going to want it. I'm not prone to infections or am at high risk for Stds - an IUD would be fine. But it worries me when you find out your doctor didn't warn you of possible side effects that are very serious and obviously popular. Nowhere on the website, on the Internet, anything, was a disclaimer about Paragaurd causing anxiety and shouldn't be used by people with preexisting conditions.

Hopefully if I pieced this together in a few hours and average resources other people have and are suing them so they now have to list copper toxicity as a possible side affect. Same thing happened when I took Chantix when I was 16 to quit smoking - 5 years later the commercial now lists all of the f'd up side effects I experienced immediately and wasn't warned about. Luckily when i started having insane dreams I stopped the new medication that obviously caused them. In this case it takes years to realize your side effects are caused by the Paragaurd, it's supposed hassle free hormone free awesomeness. **** it at this point. I'm just going to stay off birth control in general - it just feels right.