Topic: Mirena

Better Birth Control: A Doctor’s View on IUDs

Better Birth Control: A Doctor's View on IUDs

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has officially endorsed intrauterine devices (IUDs) as contraceptives for healthy women and teens (regardless of if they’ve given birth before). In honor of that, we want to get a little more informed about this lesser-known form of birth control, so we’ll be posting about IUDs and contraception options all week here at Blisstree. Today, I talk with Manhattan-based doctor Margaret Kearns-Stanley about IUD insertion, side effects, hormones and more. More »

Better Birth Control: ‘I Used The Mirena IUD For 5 Years, And It Was Awesome’

Better Birth Control: 'I Used The Mirena IUD For 5 Years, And It Was Awesome'

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has officially endorsed intrauterine devices (IUDs) as contraceptives for healthy women and teens (regardless of if they’ve given birth before or not). In honor of that, we want to get a little more informed about the lesser-known form of birth control, so we’ll be posting about IUDs and contraception options all week here at Blisstree. Today, I talk with Valerie Whitney, a musician and blogger living in Brooklyn, New York, who has used both the hormonal (the Mirena) and copper (the ParaGard) IUDs. More »

IUD: The Ugly Stepchild of Birth Control You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Use

IUD: The Ugly Stepchild of Birth Control You Shouldn't Be Afraid to Use

My life was made possible by the recall of an intrauterine device. It was the mid-1970s and my older sister had been born a few years before. My mother, bleary-eyed, blissful—and definitely not ready for a second kid—went to the gynecologist and, like many women at the time, was introduced to a piece of plastic shaped like a small bug or a fish, her free pass to a life without worries about birth control for the new few years.

Everything was fine—wonderful, in fact—until her gynecologist informed her that the Dalkon Shield had been recalled. It turned out her carefree birth control method also had a proclivity to cause ectopic pregnancies and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).

“Please don’t take my IUD,” my mother pleaded with her doctor. “I love my IUD.” (Seriously, that’s what she said.) The doctor apologized, removed it, and one year later she was expecting me. More »