Brown Spotting

I've had the IUD for at least 6 months and it has been a total nightmare when it comes to a period. I bleed for at least the first 4-6 weeks then the brown spotting started...EVERYDAY!! I am getting so sick of pads and tampons it is not even close to being funny. Everyone tells me that at the end of the first year it normally regulates itself...we shall see. I went almost 2 months without bleeding at all and was so worried. I was starving all of the time and my breasts were extremely sore. I took 3 pregnancy tests and they were all negative but I swore that they were wrong, then I finally started and now I've been bleeding/spotting for going on 3 weeks. Good luck

Hi J.,
I don't know what your specific spotting is due to. I just wanted to encourage you that I have had brown spotting before and it was due to neither pregnancy or ovulation. At one point I was spotting for a few days before my period each month (and it was the brown stuff). How many days have you been spotting? For me it was just breakthrough bleeding (I think that is what it is called). They tried to solve the problem by putting me on progesterone supplements, but it didn't really take care of it. I would suggest seeing your gyno about the issue though. It could be something as simple as an infection (which is easy to treat) or just your body getting used to the mirena.
M.

I would just check with your doctor if you don't think it is ovulating or pregnancy. That would be the surest route,I think! Good luck and I hope it is nothing serious at all!

I did some research online on Mirena and it said to expect irregular periods for 6mths to a year. If your Dr didn't tell you that was one of the normal side effect I would call him/her to make it is normal for you.

No one wants to hear 'horror stories' but since I have been unable to have more than my one child - I had an interuterine device for 2 years after her birth. At 20 years old I had some of your same symptoms and ended up with, well suffice it so say, just the one child. I do not trust those things and no matter what 'statistics' and 'percentiles' the medical world tells us I believe they are misinforming we the 'regular' people. Get rid of the Mirena and try not to have foreign objects placed in your womb. Sound Right?
B.

oK, So everyone is giving you nightmare stories about their experiences with the iud. Mine is not a nightmare story, just my experience. I had mine put in at my 6week post natal check up. My daughter just turned 2 last week. In 2 years, I have had One (what i would actually consider) period. every 3 or 4 months, I will get really bad pms symptoms... (especially mood swings) for about 2 weeks and then I will spot like brownish colored blood for like a day, and then its done. I haven't had anything horrible other than my mood swings (whcih I found out are a side effect of the iud). Before I got it in, I had my period every 28 days like clock work until I got preggo. so I probably would take a test just to be on the safe side, but i really don't think that I personally would worry about it toomcuh.

Ummm...lol-I had the Mirena put in at my 6wk checkup after our daughter was born....I had "heavier"spotting the first day,then it lightened up and I lightly spotted for about 3 days afterwards..I had the ame prob as u r describing for about 3-4 mts.I had to have the strings cut back twice 'cause my hubby could feel it and said that it kept poking him-lol...on July 4th the following year(about 10mts after it was put in)I had a HORRIBLE but fast cramp and then a little bright spotting...went to my OB the next morning-I was almost 2mts along! My advice?-take a pregnancy test!!!...then again-it could just be side effects;they differ w/ everybody
Hope this helps ya!

Here is a little info about a freind of mine who had probelms with the IUD take it into consideration the chances you are pregnant are slim to none. But it could be something else...

Just to warn you, this might be a little long. I wanted to let everyone who has an IUD, is thinking about getting one, or knows someone who does have one to know what I didn?t when I got mine. The Mirena IUD has not been used in the US for very long and maybe this is why the doctors are a bit clueless or maybe it?s because it hasn?t happened to enough people. Who knows why, but here is what happened to me:

After I got pregnant twice while on birth control pills, I decided to get the Mirena IUD after Eli was born. It sounded like the perfect form of birth control. No more periods, you didn?t have to remember to take anything, no shots, and it last for five years!!!!!!!! I got the IUD six weeks after Eli was born. It?s a tiny plastic device that is shaped like a T. It squirts out small amounts of hormone into your uterus daily. Anyways, for a year I had no noticeable side effects from the IUD. Now knowing what I do, I can think of some minor things that did change. On March 14, I had to be rushed to the ER with an irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, and chest pain. Once there my heart started to beat normally and they sent me home. I continued to have chest pain for one week and then eventually it went away. Then like clockwork, one month later the same symptoms came back! Back to the ER with heart palpitations, chest pain, shortness or breath, numbness in left arm and heart racing. This went on for several weeks. I think I was in and out of the ER six or seven times. They did a stress test and I even had to wear a heart monitor. The heart monitor picked up that I was having PVCs and PACs which are premature heartbeats coming from both chambers of the heart. However, everything else came back fine so they still had no answers. Plus, the constant numbness in my arm was asymptomatic, meaning it did not really relate to anything else. After no answers from the doctors, I decided to start researching online. One night I thought of my IUD and decided to Google IUD and heart palpitations. BOOM and there it was, thousands of girls who were going through the very same thing as me. Once some of them had their IUDs out their symptoms slowly started to go away. I further researched hormone imbalance and there is where I found all the same symptoms as well. I called my doctor and he agreed that it could be possible. I had the IUD taken out two days later and everyday since I have felt better!!!!!!!!! The thing about it is this, we trust that this little plastic device will only squirt out the small amount of hormone it?s suppose to and not anymore than that. At the same time this little plastic device has enough hormones in it to last for FIVE YEARS!

I wanted to post something sooner but wanted to make sure that everything else that needed to be checked was. Most doctors, I have heard, will deny that this is possible but numbers don?t lie.

I just wanted to share because I am sure a lot of women out there have these symptoms and have never thought to relate it to their IUD.