IUD Mirena causing Vaginal Infections

I have had the Mirena IUD since February 2009 and picked it to slow and hopefully stop bleeding everytime I had sex with my dear hubbie. I waited for several months before my periods really became infrequent and light but they never completely stopped like some womens do. I seem to get them every two or three months but because it is not a predictable cycle anymore I started to notice this horrible smell right before I would get a period which would get really bad during/after sex and then take a couple days after my period to go away. My periods looked different to with much darker blood. I have crazy thoughts that my menstrual fluid must be infected with something for it to smell that bad. I also started noticing some other things that I had never experienced before and tracked for several months to make sure it wasn't just a fluke including things such as: an occassional urinary tract infection, a couple of bv infections, severe cramping even without a period and never having experienced bad cramps before no matter what kind of birth control I was on, severe lower back pain, bloating, gas pain, ibs, diarrhea in the days before I have a period (so I'm either popping anti gas pills or anti-diarrheal pills which I had never taken before in my life), weight gain and the very worst symptom for me has been severe joint pain in my shoulders and hands. I even called my dad to ask when he started noticing joint pain and he said not until after age 60 and I'm only 39. I could think of nothing I have changed in what I eat or getting injured that could cause all these symptoms so I started doing some research and think it could be related to the Mirena. I decided it was worth getting periods again to get rid of these symptoms and went yesterday to get this thing out. Luckily hubbie has a vasectomy so I don't have to worry about pregnancy and can experience life for awhile without being on birth control for once. Anyway, it became a nightmare trying to get it removed as she couldn't find the strings and couldn't reach it with any of the instruments. Did a quick ultrasound and could see that it was in my uterus still but after a half hour of severe pain from trying to fish this thing out she said I would have to come back for a surgical procedure to get it removed. I should have know it couldn't have been this easy since it took well over an hour and excrutiating pain to get the thing in there in the first place. So I go back on the 13th hoping it isn't imbedded into the side of my uterus and I can get this thing out. Then I will anxiously wait to see if these symptoms subside and I can go back to have comfortable and odor free sex with my man.

I just wanted to let you girls know that I had my mirena taken out about a month ago.. I had the mirena for about 7 months and it was pure hell on earth... the nastiest odor especially after sex, serious weight gain, cramping, non-stop discharge and Bacterial infections so being on antibiotics all the time.....

But since the removal.. No lie.. The next day the odor vanished....cramping went away..I've lost 10lbs in a month....my mood swings are gone....I feel relieved and mentally and emotionally more stable since this horrible device robbed me of that with its side effects....

.The day I walked out of the OB office from it being removed... I felt better... I passed some huge clots afterwards which scared me because they were the size of a tennis ball...but i was told it was to be expected from the removal... isnt that jacked? this had to be inside me the entire time? The IUD is not a natural thing to put into your body.. it creates so much havoc on our bodies that the side effects are worse then the pay off....

I no longer get BV, Bacterial Vaginosis.. I have no more odor, no more cramping, my abdomen is far less swollen and sex no longer hurts and i am back to enjoying sex as much as often. I am now on the RING and it is really a awesome BC choice because of the low dose of hormone..but none the less, the MIRENA should be taken off the market.. I have known another girl with this device and she ended up in the hospital from the device puncturing her uterine wall and severely infecting her bladder and causing her to have huge cysts that needed to be removed surgically and then determined she was going to NEVER have the chance to have children, and she got this IUD w/o previously having children... She is ruined and so depressed now.

I have had my Mirena in for almost 4 years I have had no problems till this last year. I am getting my doctor to take it out tomorrow. I have had the same problem with yeast infections, they have started to frequent my vagina biweekly. Thank for the post I have been seen my doctor 4 times now and have tried home remedies to save on the cost of yeast infection treatments. (If anyone is brave enough to try plain yogurt with live cultures, I have heard some great things!) My doctor keeps insisting it is not the Mirena, I have almost had to force her to take it out. If you think that this is a problem, and want it out make sure your doctor understand it is your body your choice! Mine apparently has forgotten that!

I have had the Mirena IUD since February 2009 and picked it to slow and hopefully stop bleeding everytime I had sex with my dear hubbie. I waited for several months before my periods really became infrequent and light but they never completely stopped like some womens do. I seem to get them every two or three months but because it is not a predictable cycle anymore I started to notice this horrible smell right before I would get a period which would get really bad during/after sex and then take a couple days after my period to go away. My periods looked different to with much darker blood. I have crazy thoughts that my menstrual fluid must be infected with something for it to smell that bad. I also started noticing some other things that I had never experienced before and tracked for several months to make sure it wasn't just a fluke including things such as: an occassional urinary tract infection, a couple of bv infections, severe cramping even without a period and never having experienced bad cramps before no matter what kind of birth control I was on, severe lower back pain, bloating, gas pain, ibs, diarrhea in the days before I have a period (so I'm either popping anti gas pills or anti-diarrheal pills which I had never taken before in my life), weight gain and the very worst symptom for me has been severe joint pain in my shoulders and hands. I even called my dad to ask when he started noticing joint pain and he said not until after age 60 and I'm only 39. I could think of nothing I have changed in what I eat or getting injured that could cause all these symptoms so I started doing some research and think it could be related to the Mirena. I decided it was worth getting periods again to get rid of these symptoms and went yesterday to get this thing out. Luckily hubbie has a vasectomy so I don't have to worry about pregnancy and can experience life for awhile without being on birth control for once. Anyway, it became a nightmare trying to get it removed as she couldn't find the strings and couldn't reach it with any of the instruments. Did a quick ultrasound and could see that it was in my uterus still but after a half hour of severe pain from trying to fish this thing out she said I would have to come back for a surgical procedure to get it removed. I should have know it couldn't have been this easy since it took well over an hour and excrutiating pain to get the thing in there in the first place. So I go back on the 13th hoping it isn't imbedded into the side of my uterus and I can get this thing out. Then I will anxiously wait to see if these symptoms subside and I can go back to have comfortable and odor free sex with my man.

Hello again, I first responded to this post on 9/27/2010 at 4:54pm after I'd gotten my second Mirena inserted. I never had any trouble with the first one but after I got the second one I began to repeatedly get BV. Frustration caused me to make an appointment with my doctor to have it removed after only having been on it for 5 months (I was on the first one for 6 years). One thing I can tell you is...I'm still getting BV. So if you are thinking about having Mirena removed because you think it's causing you to get BV I'd really think hard about your decision. I am now back on the pill and wishing I had stayed on Mirena since having it removed obviously DID NOT CURE the problem. What I'm trying to say is when you get BV chances are your body is just throwing tantrums for whatever reason. And that reason is most likely not the Mirena.

However, there is a bright side, but not too bright. Here are the things that have worked for me in counteracting the BV because I stopped taking the antibiotics...they were getting too expensive. Plus the antiobiotics dried me out so bad that sex was really uncomfortable. AND I read the pamphlet that comes with the antiobiotic I was prescribed, it had been shown to cause cancer. So yeahhh, that antiobiotic was not for me.

I now take 1 folic acid and 1 acidophilus pill orally in the morning and then again before bed. I still get a discharge but there is no smell. I just wear a panty liner for the discharge. You can also use a homemade douche of 1/2 distilled water and 1/2 hydrogen peroxide. (Put into a clean squeezeable water bottle.) It helps to leave it in for a couple minutes. This will get rid of the discharge and the smell until the pills are working in your system. I've never done the yogurt thing so I can't speak on that.

Best wishes to you ladies :-)

Oh WOW!! I thought the Mirena could be the reason for all this itching but I wasn't sure!!! I think I have had a constant infection since I got it put in about 5 mos ago and I cannot handle it anymore the itching is insane!!! Thanks for your posts I was scared I would be the only one...

Thank god I read all this. Ive had my mirena since march of 2009, and ive had nothing but problems. I think ive had more BV infections than I had periods in the last five years. Not to mention the problems with sex, and my confidence is low, so thats a problem because I dont want to have sex as much and my poor fiance has to suffer. im getting this thing out as soon as possible. The only problem for me is that since I have a blood clotting disorder I have to take a birth control with no estrogen in it. Cuz I to have all the same problems as you ladies. I hate this thing and the odd thing is, is that the nurse had one also and never mentioned any problems. I definately thought I was the only one with these problems. Thank you girls.

I have had the mirena for about a year and a half now and started getting bacteria infections shortly after I started having sex, which was months after I got it put in. My best friend is a nurse and also had a mirena, she too was having the same issue and got it removed. I too am an extremely clean person and never have a smell in my lady area, not even after sex so the biggest clue that something was wrong was the smell. Since I've had the iud I've had discharge and my period is so unpredictable. I also have unexpected moments of depression that all of a sudden come. I did some research and found that depression can also be a side affect. I am so glad I'm not the only one that this has happened to. When I got it put in my Dr would remove it for free whenever you wanted hut I called last week and there's a new policy that makes patients have to pay $150 to get it removed now, smh. What to do now?

I have had the Mirena since 2006 and it is a lot more pain then gain. I think I was so relieved with the idea of not taking daily pills, inserting bi-weekly/monthly rings, semi monthly shots that I overlooked a lot of the issues. When I first got it inserted I had what seemed to me regular (compared to other women) infections. Most recently in the past year I have been to my doctor almost monthly. It is very troubling and it wasn't until I started searching for comments about mirena and BV cases, yeast infections and such that I realized I have been inattentive to by body as I should be. I am very very clean and not one physician I saw this past year (I went to 3) agreed with me in regards to if the Mirena was causing these issues for me. So I began to think I was over-worrying or something. I am at ease now and will be getting this issue removed come Monday! :$

Hello Ladies, I agree with all the post about Mirena and yeast infections and BV. I got my IUD put in the end of 2007 and I have had several yeast infections and several cases of BV. There were a few times when I had BV and the yeast infection at the same time. I really like having this IUD but I don't enjoy the yeast infections or the BV. I going to my doctor to have my taken out. I think more research needs to be done on mirena and the information should me more available to us women before we get the IUD and have to go through all of this

A good birth control pill with little mood swings, little to no weight gain is semphasic. I took it for 8 years with no problems. And bounced from pill to pill with all kids of spotting and hormone incompatibility. Try semphasic - it's a good one (two horomones) take daily.

hi.... wow omg!! i cant believe this i have been having this nasty smell and browning yellow discharge too... thank god im not the only one... reading all these responses i know whats going on with me now... i have had mirena for a year and a half and after 4 months of having it the itching and the  smell started coming out... i hate it!!! like everyone else i have had more then 6 bv's and i cant remember how many infections.... i cant afford to be going to the doctor like this... with the amount of money im spending on the doctor i might as well get it out and buy condoms....i cant even imagine having my honeymoon with this god offal smell in the middle.... im saying bye bye to this and hello condoms and maybe a birth pill... thank u everyone for responding... it really helped :)

I have had the same problem. I have had my IUD for a year and continuosly keep getting infections. It totally sucks. Thanks for the info!

I HATE my MIRENA!! I'm eighteen and shouldnt have this many vaginal problems. I ITCH constantly, it hurts to have sex, I'm constantly in a terrible mood because of the yeast infections!! I'm getting this out! I have a daughter and don't need anymore babies til I am older. Any ideas on good birthcontrols?

 

I have had mirena since july 2010 and i stopped having periods all together in october 2010, now i cant even stand up because i have horrid pelvic pain and i have a walking 1 year old wtf am i supposed to tell her when i cant even lift her???? Stupid thing i wish i had never gotten it!!!!