Hello, I was wondering if anyone knew any solutions or ideas as to why my period is longer since I've had an IUD.
I have the Mirena IUD and I have had it for a year and 1 month at this point. I am nonbinary and having a period is incredibly dysphoric for me. While my pain tolerance is pretty high and I have what I would say is an average amount of blood on a daily period basis for me, since I have had the IUD my periods have gotten longer. For example - before my IUD my periods would last 4-7 days and would happen on a regular month to month basis.
All the women in my family told me that if I am feeling this dysphoric I could try birth control (at the time I wasn't dating but I am currently with a man so there is an added benefit of not getting pregnant - pregnancy would be the ultimate dysphoric trigger, the idea of being pregnant makes me think of the movie ALIEN). They all said that their periods stopped completely or were minimal spotting. I don't know if family history matters for this sort of thing but I thought I had a really good chance of ending my suffering.
In high school I was on the pill because I was a cross country runner and it was supposed to help me lose less iron but I don't actually remember if it was all that effective since I was taking the placebo pills during my period week. In collage, I also tried the ring to get rid of my period as my doctor had recommended it, but I just made me bleed for 2 months straight. Then, my sister and mother recommended an IUD.
There is of course an adjustment period but everything I found online said that my period should stabilize by a year at most. My doctor also put me back on the pill in DEC since my period was 3 weeks long at that point. It brought me back to the two weeks on and two weeks off I've had since last summer but its still a regular flow for me and its longer than it was before. Right now its even started being three weeks again even though I haven't changed anything. My second to last period started on 3/24 and ended on 4/5, and then it started up again on 4/11 and its still going.
My doctor has checked me several times to make sure nothing is wrong and I've been given ultrasounds but they can't find why this is happening and the best she can give me is that sometimes this happens. While I plan on getting a hysterectomy one day, I don't want to right now (I'm afraid of surgery and I think I want to freeze my eggs first, at the very least I want to have more time to consider it) but I fear its the only thing that will solve my issues. I hate myself so much during my period and I feel like I'm some sort of monster and it sucks so much. I also won't have sex on my period since I feel so far from myself and with it getting longer and longer, I end up only having sex once a month and I have a healthy sex drive so it sucks majorly. My boyfriend has been very supportive and worried about me so it's not been a terrible strain on our relationship but I don't want it to become one.
If anyone has a solution, I'm willing to try anything but even if you just have encourage words or can relate, I could really use the support right now.