It was a Friday and my appointment was at 1:30pm. I’m a 20 Y.O final year student at university so I settled into the SU café and set up camp for the morning, attempting to revise. By 12pm I was growing a little anxious, wanting it to be over and done with, so I got myself a glass of rosé and started googling tips on preparing to have a coil fitted. Of course, this was a horrible decision because I quickly found myself surrounded by horror stories of a women who had cried and experienced terrible pain during fittings. Tales of expulsion, months of bleeding and early removals had me expecting the worst. I became pretty nervous, so I had another half glass of wine.
.
Ok, so, the appointment. The coil I’d chosen was the ‘Jaydess’, a hormonal coil which is smaller than the Mirena and lasts 3 years rather than 5. I made this choice because I was attracted to the smaller size (which supposedly meant for easier insertion) and smaller amount of hormones (which I hoped meant less side effects) that came with the Jaydess. I had two nurses, they began by talking me through the risks and assured me that the chlamydia test they’d taken the week before had come back negative. Waheeey! They then had me remove all clothing from my bottom half and lay on a bed, with a nice bit of paper laid on top of me for privacy. Now, the actual insertion isn’t great, but for me it was very manageable.It’s not for the squeamish, you have a light shined directly at your ladycave and a multitude of things put in there, but as my nurse said, “Just lie back and think of England”. The worst bits of pain only last for a second and for the most part it’s just a dull discomfort.
After about 8 minutes it was over and I was given a pad as there is immediate light bleeding. ***TIP*** Do not do what I did and wear white underwear. You will regret it! I had little specks of blood on the tops of my thighs etc and had no wipes or shower to get rid of them, R.I.P undies. </3 As soon as I sat up on the bed my dull, crampy feeling pretty much went away and I felt like I was some kind of super-high-pain-threshold-queen. No tears, no screaming, just mildly awkward chit chat. After getting redressed and signing a form (which I definitely didn’t read), I left, and all in all the appointment took about 20 minutes. I strolled across the road to grab some pads as I had been warned of bleeding for the next few days, and the crampy feeling was just kinda there, not painful at all. Crazy internet people, this was easy!
20 minutes later on the bus, the pain was starting to make itself known. Clearly I had been too happy with myself and my had body decided to remind me who’s boss. It wasn’t searing pain or unbearable pain, it was just really dull, really sucky, really heavy cramps. I felt like I was having a moderately bad period, which isn’t enjoyable, but it’s manageable. I got home, made a hot water bottle, crawled into bed, and put on Netflix. My housemate brought me Paracetamol so I took 2, and I then proceeded to have cramps (ranging from pretty bad – barely noticeable) on and off for the next 5-6 hours. I wallowed in self pity and cursed my boyfriend for not also having to go through this, for which he profusely apologised and ordered me a pizza out of guilt.
Within those hours I took one more ibuprofen, refilled my hot water bottle twice and ate the aforementioned guilt-pizza. It sucked, but that was it. No major pain killers, no bottles of vodka, just movies and general periody-comfort stuff. By 10pm I felt pretty much normal and was walking around quite happily, getting ready for bed and tidying up a bit. There was still bleeding but it’s wasn’t particularly heavy, just like a light period.
I’ve done a lot of web-surfing today and am feeling pretty concerned about what the future will hold for me and my little T-shaped friend. Every one online seems to have stories of developing bad acne, gaining unloseable weight or bleeding and bloating non-stop for 2-3 months. I guess I’m writing this blog as much as for myself as I am for you guys, I’m hoping I’ll get to be one of the lucky ones and have a magical experience to share with you all, to counter the dozens of bad. Just imagine if my periods stopped all together, I didn’t get any of the bad side effects and I did gain weight, but only in my boobs. Now that would make a great blog.
I’m moving to this IUS from having been on the pill for the last 5 years, my latest one having been Loestrin 30. I’ve had to change my type of pill 3 times over the years, one made me sob at random times for no apparent reason, another made me take 4 hour naps every day. I’m hoping that by swapping to a coil and having hormones that are only released in a localised area, I can give my body a break and discover who it is that I actually am without the influence of all the pill’s mysterious side effects.
Anyway, it’s just gone midnight so I’m going to call it quits now. Hopefully everything will be rosy and perfect in the morning (highly unlikely). I look forward to keeping you updated and monitoring my experience with my first ever IUS! Wish me luck!
C x
hergreenintentions 