sevenhelz

So I realised yesterday that it must be over a year since I got my coil. I think it was last September. The fact I can't remember probably says a lot about how forgettable it is once it's in :)

Some women I was talking to on twitter have exactly the same qualms I had about it (plus a new exciting description of how it works as "barbed wire for my uterus")... so I thought I'd write briefly about it.

My coil is non-hormonal.
This is majorly important to me, because I've tried various different hormonal contraceptives - all pills, granted, but with my experiences I didn't fancy trying anything else - which all made me highly emotional (either fluffy and unable to express why I was upset with things, or full of uncontrollable mood swings, or very angry, irrational and paranoid). One also incorporated some nasty physical effects such as swelling and soreness in the very areas I'd been hoping to enable some happy times... soooo, got off that one pretty quickly.

My coil is comfortable.
It hurt to put in. Squick thoughts = they have to get it through your cervix into your uterus. It hurts exactly as much as you'd imagine that to. A nice nurse held my hand and smiled sympathetically at me. What didn't help was the doctor checking VERY last-minute if I was sure I didn't want the hormonal coil, the Mirena - not a good time to make that decision thankyou! Anyway, It did hurt, but it died down pretty quickly. I spent about two weeks feeling kind of bloaty and uncomfortable, getting gradually better, and that happened to be at a point when I wasn't sexually active - you can't have sex for seven days I think, but I'm not sure how my body would've reacted anyway - and after that it's been pretty much perfect all along.

My coil doesn't make my periods heavier.
Theoretically the copper coil can make your periods longer and heavier. Mine do appear to be a touch longer and closer together than they were, but they're actually less painful. I'm of the type who get pressure-induced back pain, apparently due to the swelling of the blood vessels (and probably having a womb that flops backward, ain't I special). This has been infinitely better since the coil, whether because the hormones I'd previously taken had fucked me up and are gradually wearing off (which might also explain the cycle changing), or because of the bit of metal keeping me safe from unwanted babyness, who can say? It makes me happy that I no longer spend a day somewhere between inconvenienced and incapacitated - it's still an inconvenience in that, hey, I'm bleeding, and I occasionally get cramps now, but it's really definitely not worse.

My coil has been checked a couple of times.
I check monthly, just after my period, that I can still feel the strings of my coil. They poke out through the neck of my cervix, and personally I have to bear down a little to reach this. I've only had to have someone else check my coil twice - once as a follow-up which is usually 4 to 6 weeks after insertion, and once about six months later when I couldn't find the strings and panicked. What I didn't know is that although the strings are nylon and stay rigid for some time, eventually they soften inside you and can curl around your cervix - making mine quite hard to find sometimes.

My coil does not protect me from STDs, but I've been fortunate in that regard. My coil does protect me from unwanted pregnancy - it's not perfect, but neither is any other method I know of. I'm really happy with this one, and will continue to be for the next four years or so (I'm so not thinking about the part where they replace it).