Mirena IUD removal via hysteroscopy... My experience

Hi ladies,

I’m actually not a regular member of this site, but I had my Mirena IUD removed via hysteroscopy yesterday and wanted to share my story for anyone else who may be facing this in the future and isn’t sure what to expect, because I had trouble finding information about this specific type of situation. I hope I can be of comfort to someone else out there in my shoes in the future.

For the week leading up to the procedure I was rather nervous. Was the IUD still in place? Could this affect my future fertility? Would the procedure hurt? I spent hours reading things online and actually had trouble finding stories similar to mine. I scared myself reading experiences of ladies whose IUD had punctured the uterus and traveled into various parts of the abdomen and required laparoscopic surgery to remove it. Although I had had an ultrasound that showed that the IUD was still in place, the strings were just not there to grab, I didn’t really know what to expect. So for anyone who may be searching the internet for information about this particular type of experience, here’s what happened to me:

Like I said, when I went in to have the IUD removed, the doctor could not see any strings. She even tried using this little “hook” tool to fish around and try to tease the strings down, but no luck. She scheduled me for an ultrasound just to make sure that it was in place. If it was, she would remove it with a hysteroscope, a little camera inside to put inside my uterus, and then use a clamp to grab it and pull it out. IF it was not in place, well then…. That could be a scarier story. Luckily, mine was still in place, so we scheduled a hysteroscopy.

The doctor prescribed Cytotec, Valium, Percocet, and Motrin (Ibuprofen). 4 hours prior to the procedure I had to put a tiny cytotec pill/tablet up “inside” me, as close to the cervix as possible. Then two hours prior, I took one valium, one Percocet, and one motrin, spaced out about 15-20 mins in between each. They just made me relaxed and a little sleepy, kind of like NyQuil makes me feel. I was able to stay at work until it was time to go. My husband picked me up and took me to the Dr office.

The speculum used to hold open the vagina is the worst part for me. It kind of hurts a little to have something metal pushing up inside you and stretching you open. Then she injected a shot into my cervix of some kind of numbing medicine. Up to that point, the valium had kept me very calm, and I hadn’t had any physical symptoms of nervousness, such as accelerated heart rate, heavy breathing, etc. But when she injected that numbing medicine, it was a bit of a pinch/stinging feeling and it made my heart start racing and my body got a little bit shaky. She even asked if my heart was racing yet, and told me those are normal side effects from the numbing med. The heart racing only lasted a couple of minutes, and the shakiness wasn’t too bad and subsided by the end of the procedure.

She put some kind of fluid inside my uterus to “inflate” it, then put the camera inside and I was able to see what was going on up on the screen. Once the camera was in, it only took about a minute or two to find the IUD, grab it, and pull it out. That was a feeling of relief. : ) Then she took out the metal thing that was dilating my cervix open, checked it for any damage/cuts, saw none and took everything out. It was over! : ) I got dressed and walked out feeling really good. I was really surprised that I did not feel any cramping whatsoever during the procedure. I felt happy and even a little “silly” for an hour or so after it was done, from the lingering effects of valium combined with my own relief in having it over with.

About 2-3 hours afterward I did feel a little bit of cramping, but it didn’t last very long. I have been spotting a little bit, but again, nothing dramatic. I plan to start trying to conceive in a month or two. According to my Dr., there should be no risk to my fertility from any of this. I plan to start trying to conceive in a month or two. I’ll try to remember to post an update to let you know how soon I’m able to conceive!

I realize this info won’t be relevant to a lot of women out there, but hopefully it can bring someone else the kind of comfort I was looking for before I had it done. : )