my experience with an IUD & hormonal birth control

disclaimer: i am not a licensed health professional. i am only making this post to share my experience with hormonal birth control in the hopes that it will educate and empower other individuals who are thinking about starting / stopping it.

i have been on and off hormonal birth control since i was 16. when i was 16, i started taking birth control pills for the first time because i was sexually active and wanted to stay protected. i don’t remember if my doctor at the time told me about any side effects, but i do know that i did a bit of research and knew that depression and weight gain were common ones. during this time, my breasts grew 2 cup sizes and my acne cleared. i wasn’t in tune with my mind or body enough to understand any other effects it had on me at the time. i took the pills for around 3 months and stopped because i felt that they were making me moody.

when i was 20, i started taking birth control pills again because my period was late but i wasn’t pregnant and my doctor wanted me to be protected for the future. i told her i was concerned with starting hormonal birth control again because i had just been diagnosed with major depression a few months ago and my mood was finally starting to stabilize so i was afraid taking birth control pills would trigger additional changes in mood. she told me not to worry and sent me along my merry way with a new bc prescription. i don’t remember what pill i was on this time but it definitely gave me intense mood swings and triggered a depressive episode that lasted around 3 months even though i stopped taking the pills after 6 weeks since the depression was too much for me to handle. 

it wasn’t until 2018 when i was 23 that i considered starting hormonal contraception again since my boyfriend and i were moving in together and weren’t planning on having kids anytime soon. this time i wanted to try an IUD since 2 of my other friends had one and said the only bad part about having it was the insertion. i was still pretty wary about hormonal contraception affecting my overall mood and mental health but i did my research on the different kinds of IUDs out there and decided that i wanted the kyleena because it had the lowest dosage of hormones out of all the IUDs that lasted for 5 years. the insertion took around 3 minutes and felt like a sharp pain, then a bunch of induced cramps from the IUD being inserted. it cost me around $300 after my insurance but you can get one for free from planned parenthood if you can’t afford to pay that much. i spotted/bled a little immediately after the insertion. 

my first couple of periods after the IUD insertion were a lot heavier than normal and i experienced different cramps than the ones i normally had. i started getting cramps in my lower back instead of my lower abdomen area and they were a lot more crippling/painful too. my mood also varied for the first 2 weeks after but the moodiness gradually went away. i didn’t experience any weight gain or acne. after 3 months, my period almost went away except for some spotting once a month preceded by period symptoms such as acne, bloating, cramping, and occasionally breast tenderness. i knew my “period” was about to come when started to develop cramps in my lower back once a month. over time, i also noticed that my sex drive went away and i also sometimes felt a dull pain in my cervix while having sex. it definitely affected my confidence and mood in the bedroom.

after a bunch of internal debating, i ultimately decided to get it removed after 1.5 years mostly due to the back cramping but also because i felt like it was a barrier to me being able to fully understand my body and its signals. i was torn because i loved the convenience of being able to have sex without worrying about pregnancy but at the same time i wanted even more to get back in touch with my hormonal cycles and i actually missed having a period. so i got my IUD removed last week and it was a super quick and easy process. the removal took probably 15 seconds and only felt like a small pinch when my doctor took it out. my back cramps immediately went away and i got my period 4 days later as expected from my estimated cycles. my sex drive also returned along with a lot of my confidence. now i’m focusing on listening to my body and understanding the signals it sends me without any sort of added hormonal interference. 

in writing this post, i realize that i am super fortunate and grateful to be able to have all these choices i can make for my body. i wanted to share my experience because this is all information i wish i had before i made the decision to get an IUD or any sort of hormonal birth control method. i hope this post inspires/empowers you to make conscious choices for your body. i am in no way against IUDs or hormonal contraception and may even consider another method in the future if i see it fit. for now, i’m embracing my body as it is and am glad i made the choice to remove my IUD.