Mirena IUD and Weight Gain

I will never recommend the Mirena ever again. I loved it (for the most part) while I had mine. But I too thought it was making me gain weight and having trouble losing the weight. So I switched to the Paragard and that is when all chaos broke loose. I'm having trouble regulating my menstrual cycle and have heart palpitations on a regular basis. I've had the Paragard for a year and I thought maybe things would sort themselves out, but nope. I now have to take a low dose birth control to try and control the bleeding. It sucks, I hate trying to remember to take a pill, not just for birth control, but to try and regulate my cycle.

Maybe the Mirena is not to blame for all the weight I gained while it was in for five years, but I do believe it caused me health problems. Research thoroughly and ask questions before you let a doctor put that thing in you.

I have had both Paraguard and Mirena...I don't know anything about your situation, but Paraguard is recommended for someone that has had kids already...must fyi. That being said...I had the Paraguard for about 2 years and Mirena for closer to 3 and can't say that I noticed any weight gain because of the IUD. I think that for me at least it comes down to life choices. When I had Paraguard, I did gain weight, but I also went from a retail job to a desk job....so it could be that weight gain has nothing to do with the IUD.

Hi! Just an FYI, the Paragard is safe for nulliparous women. I know because I am NP and had the Paragard for 5 years. It was wonderful, but my cycles got really short and my periods were super long. I didn't have any pesky cramps like some women do, though.

I just switched to the Mirena and that is going well, although I did gain some weight, I am very certain that its not due to the Mirena, as I've just been traveling (and hence eating) more. I no longer have a period on the Mirena (which is awesome!)

Nope. Ive had mirena in almost a year and i keep losing --gained a few at first--then I've realized any weight I gained was due to too much butter, ice cream, liquor... You name it. The sooner I realized this the better off I was.

I had the Mirena IUD



I had it in place for nearly 7 months.

I never gained weight.

But I gained a baby.

Definitely not a reliable source of Birth Control, lol.

Yes, absolutely. I got the IUD because I suffer from migraines, and my Dr. told me that the Mirena would be a better alternative to pills because 1) no migraines, YAY! and 2) you don't have to do anything about it. Almost immediately (within a 2 month period) I gained 10 lbs. It's been a little over 1 year, and I've gained a total of 30lbs!!! Ridiculous! I'm getting mine removed TOMORROW!

My mom had been telling me for months that my excessive weight gain was due to the IUD, but I ignored her. Then last night when I was looking at pictures from my bridal shower and then my bachelorette party, I was *stunned* at how much bigger I look at my bachelorette party in only 1 month difference (I got my IUD the week after my bridal shower). Needless to say, I am never getting an IUD again, unless pills don't work for me. We'll see! : )

PS
My friend was also on the IUD and after she got it removed, she lost like 20 lbs in less than 2 months! It was so much bloating for her for some reason, and I feel the same way.

I have gained no weight.

This is my job and no it doesnt cause weight gain. Your talking 3lbs max due to an increased appetite. If you can carry on past the increased appetite things will settle.

I first had my Mirena placed 6 weeks after the birth of my now 7 year old son. At the time I weighed about 165-175 lbs. I had no problem losing the baby weight and got down to 120 lbs before I filed for divorce in 2009 and dropped even further to my lowest known weight of 108 lbs. I gained some of that back over time and eventually got up to about 145-150 lbs. That wasn't because of the Mirena. That was because I ate a lot of food and drank a lot of beer and did little to no exercise. I was uncomfortable with how I felt and looked so I decided to change my eating/drinking habits and start exercising. I have since lost over 20 lbs. I had my Mirena replaced earlier this year, a little later than they recommend, but oh, well. Since I have had the new Mirena I have gained exactly nothing. My point is that if you have gained weight it is more likely due to eating more calories than your body is expending than due to the Mirena. I know that everyone is different and in some very rare cases someone might have a reaction to the hormones in Mirena that causes them to gain weight, but it is very rare.

Mine stopped after about 3 months. But not everyone's stop.

The mirena made me gain a lot of weight even though I had it for only 4 months. I couldn't lose the weight no matter what. Also, it caused me all kinds of side effects, hormonal imbalances, estrogen dominance, silicona and copper toxicity, etc. I recommend everyone who is serious about stopping all their unbearable side effects to watch the video on this page: mirenadetox.

bumping a zombie thread. i would like to hear from women who have been tracking accurately before and during Mirena and whether there was weight gain, increased appetite, water retention. I've been on the mini pill for 3 weeks and have held onto the initial 5 lbs of water retention pretty steadily but my doctor is encouraging me to get an iud.

by accurately i mean logging every day, using accurate database entries and using a food scale as much as possible.

pleases and thank yous!!!

I got the Mirena in late August 2017. At first I liked it, the only thing that bothered me were the period cramps (which I've never had before in my life thankfully). I had pretty bad emotional PMS days before my period, normally felt bloated, but it was not a big deal. But then a couple months later, I noticed that I gained some weight in my stomach area... It was odd because it was a lot of extra fat on my stomach and honestly shocking because I've never gained weight this quickly in my life. I did pageants up until 2016, weighed 135lb, 5'7" in 2016. When I got the Mirena I was around 148lb (at the time i was exercising 3-4 times per week and losing weight).

Then I got the mirena late august 2017, continued to exercise, and then injured my knee. So I didn't exercise for three months, and one day I randomly checked the scale, not thinking it would be drastically different....and I weighed 162!!!!! I gained close to 15 pounds!!!! I thought, i can't believe i've gained so much weight in three months, i normally don't gain weight this quickly. i attributed it to not working out at FIRST, but then i remembered that I started gaining weight around the time i got my IUD. so then i started going back to the gym, eating a regular/healthy diet.... i exercised (cardio) 4-5 days per week with a regular diet for two weeks...after two weeks, i checked the scale and low and behold... I gained MORE pounds. I gained 5 lbs in two weeks! I was 162 before I started working out and now 167! And it's not because of gaining muscle, I've been doing cardio specifically to avoid gaining muscle.

In the past without an IUD, I usually start losing weight quickly, i.e. 1-2 lbs per week. I usually lose 8-10 lbs within the first month. I got my IUD removed today and I'm hoping the weight is going to be easier to lose now.

Also, I was hospitalized for dehydration in November, a couple months after my IUD insertion. I've never been hospitalized before, and for dehydration... it's just odd. I had been having on and off fevers, and feeling weak the whole month of November. The doctors did abdominal scans and found no gallstones or anything like that. So now I'm starting to think that weird month of fevers/chills/weakness was caused by my IUD... In addition, the past few months i've been sleeping for days - literally, DAYS. Like I would just sleep for 20 hours like it's no big deal. I haven't had a social life because I sleep the ENTIRE weekend. I'm thinking the fatigue/frequent need for sleep was the IUD as well.

I'll update in a few weeks and hopefully I will be 5-10 lbs lighter! NEVER AGAIN!

I gained a ton of weight on skyla (smaller mirena). I knew it was from the skyla because I had easily lost nearly 40 lbs the 6 months before I got it. Immediately after I got it and in the following months my weight loss came to a screeching halt and I started gaining. It made me ravenous ALL the time. I had it taken out and I feel much better without it.

Before Mirena, I was on the lowest dosage of Lo Loestrin Fe since I was 16, but had pretty constant breakthrough bleeding for a few years. Going to college I gained almost 10 pounds because I stopped being as active and drinking/eating unhealthy ect, so I went from being just under 120lbs (I'm 5'2") to about 130lbs over my freshman year of college (aka 19 years old). It was at the end of that academic year that my gyno decided to give me a higher dosage of birth control (same brand) to help end the breakthrough bleeding, which caused me to gain a whopping 20lbs over 2 and a half months on top of the weight I gained from not taking care of my body, putting me at almost 150lbs. I was SO BLOATED and always uncomfortable and looked pregnant. I decided to switch to Mirena because I was attracted to the fact that it has hormones that "only affect your uterus," after feeling terrible and self conscious about by body weight (especially because it was the beginning of the summer and the last thing I wanted to do was put on a bikini).

The insertion of Mirena was painful, but I thought it was completely worth it! I never got my period since! I also was able to lose about 10lbs, and looked less bloated. Since then, I've been going back to my active lifestyle (run 3 miles at least 3 days a week, joined a HIIT gym) and I eat very clean mostly veggies and protein, trying to lose the rest of the weight and get to at least 125lbs. I do have moments where I break my clean eating and have a cheat day (hey...I'm human lol) but overall I eat extremely clean and consume less calories than I burn off. I'm now 21 and have been stuck at 132lbs for the past two years, and still am bloated (but not nearly as bad as it was when I was on the pill before Mirena. I thought I could have developed food allergies....went gluten free, dairy free, vegan....yet no difference in my bloating. I've also noticed that over the past few years that I've been very gassy. I also do have lower back pain on occasion (I thought it was from not sitting straight but I normally make sure to have good posture), and I find that sometimes my anxiety is worse than its been before.

At first all these things were things that I thought were issues that weren't related to Mirena, especially the weight thing, as some people have told me that this could just be my body changing as I'm growing older, but after reading all of these posts I wonder if Mirena could be the cause. I'm going to visit my gyno for my annual well visit at the end of this month, and am really considering to ask her to take out Mirena, and take a break from any contraceptives for a while to give my body a break from all synthetic hormones. I was just looking for some advice and/or opinions on if this is just me being crazy or if Mirena could actually be an issue?! I want to do whats right for my body and also be more comfortable in my skin, yet I'm also nervous to ask my gyno if she thinks Mirena could be the causing issue, after reading so many posts from people saying their Drs always said Mirena wasn't the cause of their symptoms, and my gyno is a big supporter of Mirena and I'm afraid she'll try to convince me not to get it removed (either way I know its MY body and I will make the choice I feel is right for me). I'm going to visit her in a few weeks so any thoughts from anyone before that would be extremely helpful!!!

I used a Mirena from shortly after the birth of my second child (1993) until I hit menopause - about 15 years. During that time I had no periods and no problems. My weight gain had started with my first pregnancy in 1990 - pre Mirena - and continued due to snacking on crisps and chocolate and eating meals the same size as my husband's! The Mirena was great for me - I didn't know I was menopausal but after the 3rd my nurse suggested not replacing it and seeing whether periods returned - they didn't - Yay! No probs with menopause either although I accept I may just be lucky with that.