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My Mirena Experience

My Mirena Experience

By Ren RenPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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My Mirena Experience

I have had my Mirena device for a little over a year and three months. I just recently went to the ER and had the device removed. It was causing Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. Bayer Pharmaceuticals is the company that patented and created Mirena. Mirena is an intrauterine device with hormones used to regulate periods and pregnancy. My experience as a queer woman having this device has been traumatic and life-altering. I would not recommend this device.

I received the device last year, in January after an abortion from Planned Parenthood. This was my second abortion, and I was informed on my options of birth control. I chose the Mirena. The week after my abortion with the device inserted, I was in pain. My symptoms included, bleeding, sharp needle like feelings in my uterus, mood changes, hormonal imbalance, crying jags, anger, and deep sadness. I felt like I was mourning for my uterus.

I have noticed that with penetrative sex as well, the device could be felt, and often shifted causing cervical pain. The doctor that removed the device said that this PID diagnoses was common, and wrote me a script for pain meds and antibiotics. I couldn’t help but wonder why this was common, and looked at as a normal diagnosis. Disease in the uterus passed off as common.

Bayer Pharmaceuticals only employs around 20 percent women, since 2016. This device is man made, made by a man. Why are birth control options being made by men? I find this a bizarre trick of patriarchal power. I also found my male doctor to be very unprofessional, asking about my sexual orientation, and if I was a lesbian why would I need this device, as he was performing the pelvic exam. I am in a state of ill will with the state of women’s health in the US. I feel the power of masculinity invading me, on every level, and with this, it’s time to think critically and fight back.

Why are Mirena devices so commonly used, has there been a resurgence of IUDs being inserted in America? Why are men even able to perform pelvic exams? Where did the line become crossed? How did my boundaries become non-existent.

I have been a former sex worker for over a decade, becoming pregnant by a client. I constantly find myself at the mercy of men’s ideas of women’s bodies. Why do men even get the opportunity to make a decision on our bodies.

So, thinking critically, literally means gathering information, speaking out and up about this device, informing women of their choices on birth control, and also how to be active in making the choices for your body. Displacing shame, guilt, and unbalanced power into the hands of all women. Taking the power back from men, as a conscious whole.

I want women, especially women that are disenfranchised, and that feel powerless in this situation, to feel their own power. I want women to know that they have the ability to heal themselves from the patriarchal structures of the world.

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