Copper coil (IUD) and vaginal discharge

The insertion was painful and for the rest of the day I had severe cramps, which paracetamol and ibuprofen didn't help with. I wasn't given any option for pain relief at the time, if I had known it would have been so bad I would have asked whether pain relief was available. After insertion, I went from having manageable periods to very heavy and painful periods (severe cramping particularly on days 2/3 of my period). Naproxen was the only thing that helped to somewhat ease the pain. I persevered thinking it would get better with time, but after 11 months of no improvement I decided to have the copper coil removed. My partner and I also noticed that we would both get very dry and my partner would get cuts on the head of his penis, since removal these have not been an issue. It could be a complete coincidence, but when I asked the nurse removing my coil she said it could be possible... the cuts could have been a result from the dryness or could have been directly from the coil itself (depending on the position of the strings, and they were still quite firm as they take a while to soften). Everyone's body is different and for some this may be a great option (I initially thought it would be due to it being non-hormonal), but I definitely noticed a negative impact on my mental and physical health every month. Since having it removed (2 months ago), I feel a lot better and my periods have pretty much returned to normal.

Insertion was incredibly painful. Was like a really bad first day of period that I had to take off work sick and take lots of painkillers for. Lasted about 24 hours then settled. Unfortunately cramps continued as coil had not settled properly and one of the arms got stuck in uterus wall so I had to have it removed. due to pain of initial insertion I did not want another one back in. HOWEVER SINCE GIVING BIRTH I had another coil fitted at 10 weeks post partum and could not feel a thing! I have the progesterone coil now and have not experienced any negative side effects, other than light bleeding for about 2 weeks after insertion.

The IUD fitting itself was less bad than I expected, uncomfortable and a bit painful but not worse than period cramps. However, about half an hour or so after, I got quite intense cramping pain and almost fainted from it on the way home. The post-insertion pain settled after a few days. With the IUD, my periods were quite a bit heavier than before but this improved a bit after 6 months or so. With the IUD, I also got spotting between periods for a few days each month (possibly related to ovulation). Also, since having the IUD fitted, I started getting recurring sharp stabbing pain, always in the same spot on the right side (roughly where my right ovaries are). This pain was worst during my period, sometimes making me feel close to passing out even though I was taking the maximum daily dose of ibuprofen (I later switched to mefenamic acid but that was not much better), and it was much worse than any period cramps I had ever had and felt more like someone is stabbing me than like a cramp. I also had this same right-sided stabbing pain randomly throughout my cycle. Moreover, I also started getting cramping pain during exercise (running) after I got the IUD. The right sided stabbing pain and the cramps during exercise maybe improved slightly over time, but were still bothering me quite a lot after 9 months of having the IUD. I had several checks done to make sure the IUD was still in the right place and to exclude any underlying disease that could be causing the pain, but nothing abnormal was found that would cause pain like this. The doctor said that they could not exclude that the pain might be from a hormonal condition (like endometriosis) that was masked by the hormonal contraception (progesterone only pill) that I was on before I got the IUD. In the end, I decided to have the IUD removed to see if that would get rid of the pain, both because I felt that the pain was not something I was happy to tolerate indefinitely, and because I thought it would be important to know if I have something like endometriosis and this is what is causing the pain, because in that case I would have considered going back on hormonal contraception to slow it's progression (I wasn't happy with the side effects I got from two different combined pills and three different progesterone only pills, which is why I switched to the copper IUD, so I didn't want to switch back to hormonal contraception unless absolutely necessary). After I had the IUD removed, the right sided stabbing pain immediately went away completely, but I got the cramping pain during running once since - it hasn't been long since I had the IUD removed so I am hoping that this will eventually disappear too.