By Samantha Slabyk - Clued In
April 18, 2017

“Within a month, the effects of the copper IUD combined with no additional hormones began to appear. My skin broke out worse than it had ever been, even as a teenager. My moods were erratic and unmanageable. I would have a heavy period for seven or eight days straight, and for the first few days I would sometimes be unable to walk because of the pain. I would regularly get hit with a wave of nausea and dizziness, to the point where I would almost pass out. I was pale and tired most of the time, and possibly anemic. Because my periods were so heavy, I was unable to wear my menstrual cup as it would immediately leak and I’d have to change it every hour or so. I had to resort to thick pads, which for any menstrual cup convert knows is a very difficult thing to go back to. I soon realized that I wasn’t living some medication-free life if I had to take loads of ibuprofen seven days a month in order to function properly.
Another negative effect was the awkward and sometimes impossible sex. If not done with the most careful positioning, I risked of a sharp, debilitating pain on my left side. I had to be so conscientious that it minimized my ability to relax, feel pleasure and generally killed the intimacy between me and my partner. Everything I read and was told by doctors stated that the copper IUD could not cause painful sex. I decided to do some research and found many stories similar to mine, including the specific pain in the left side. I know the internet is not the most reliable source for information so I proceeded with caution, but after reading through dozens of stories from people who’ve had the exact same symptoms and were told the exact same thing from doctors, I began to question what could be true about the copper IUD.
Through all the pain, discomfort and negative changes, I swore I loved my IUD. I was convinced that these were just temporary symptoms that would go away eventually. There were so many reasons to love it — it’s cost effective, long-acting, I could forget about it and of course it was hormone-free. So why was I having such a terrible time with it? I still held out hope that maybe there was some mechanical problem with the IUD rather than the IUD being the problem itself.
I made an appointment with a gynecologist recommended by a new friend in Berlin to see what we could do to fix the issue. I’m glad I reached out when I did because it turned out I had multiple ovarian cysts that were on the verge of bursting and potentially could cause a tremendous amount of pain. The gynecologist was kind and comforting but still maintained a stereotypically German straightforwardness — which is exactly what I needed to hear. I told her all the problems I was having, and she responded very matter-of-factly, “Well, then why don’t we just take it out and try something else?” It sounded so simple, but wasn’t something I had seriously considered. After the scan, she said that hormonal birth control would help diminish the size of the cysts and would help control their growth in the future. With all the given information, and after six months of unendingly bad skin, bad sex and too much pain to function, I had to accept the fact that the copper IUD and I just weren’t a good match.”

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