The pros and cons of Mirena

Mirena is familiar to many women as an IUD, but its function is more than just a contraceptive measure. Mirena has many benefits, but it is not without side effects. Let’s talk about the advantages and disadvantages of Mirena today.

Benefits of Mirena

The first advantage of Mirena is its highly effective contraceptive method, with a contraceptive success rate of 99.9%, which is comparable to sterilization.

In addition to being a contraceptive, Mirena can also be used for medical treatment! If a woman has contraceptive requirements and also has menorrhagia, or symptoms such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, chronic pelvic pain, endometrial hyperplasia, or needs both contraception and prevention of recurrence after endometriosis (including uterine and ovarian cysts) surgery, Mirena will show advantages that ordinary contraceptive rings do not have.

When Mirena releases estrogen slowly, it can treat menorrhagia, anemia, dysmenorrhea, pain associated with endometriosis, uterine wall hyperplasia and cervical cancer.

Disadvantages of Mirena

Mirena is of course not perfect and has side effects. Common side effects of using growth hormone slow-release rings such as Mirena include:

Increased bleeding time (59%): After inserting the ring, you will find that your menstrual period lasts longer than before.

Non-menstrual bleeding (up to 52%): Menstrual irregularities may cause bleeding today and another time tomorrow.

Amenorrhea (6%-20%): Menstruation stops immediately, so you don’t need to use sanitary pads or tampons!

Spotting (23%-31%): This is similar to short-term oral contraceptives, which means that there is a small amount of vaginal spotting at any time.

This side effect is not a risk, so there is no need to worry.

Very common questions

If you do not want to get pregnant, if you have a menstrual period, you should remove Mirena during the menstrual period. Otherwise, be sure to use an alternative method of birth control (e.g., condoms) starting at least 7 days before removal. If the woman is not menstruating, she should also start using a barrier method at least 7 days before removal until her period resumes.

After Mirena is removed, it needs to be checked for integrity. When removed with difficulty, there have been some reports of the GH waterproof sleeve slipping over the cross arm and hiding the cross arm in the waterproof sleeve. In this case, as long as the consistency of the system can be guaranteed, there is no need to further explore into the uterine cavity. The mass on the cross arm generally prevents the growth hormone waterproof sleeve from falling off the T-body.

A new Mirena can also be inserted immediately after removal, in which case no other contraceptive measures are required.