IUD keeping your weight up?

The weight gain is not a direct side effect of any type of birth control. What happens is hormones are released that make your body think you are pregnant therefore causing you to have pregnancy symptoms. These symptoms vary from person to person, some women get moody, some get cravings, some get nauseous, etc etc. If you are the type to get cravings you are more likely to binge therefore gain weight. HOWEVER - because you are exercising and counting calories you know you aren't over eating and you are still getting this drastic weight gain. I would highly suggest seeing your doctor because there might be something more serious at work here.

((Spoke to my doctor about birth control options and their side effects at length before I started to get depo shots))

No increase with Paraguard here. There was a study though showing on average a 6lb increase in 5 years and an 8.5lb increase in 7 years, which I think can be better attributed to just getting older than the IUD. 6lbs in 5 years or 8.5lbs in 7 years is nothing. That essentially boils down to an "excess" of TWELVE calories/day. I'll throw in 10 jumping jacks a day and leave one bite on my plate.

Now you're on Mirena which is a WHOLE other ballgame. Those "tiny localized hormones" as your OB probably put it are tricking your body into thinking you're pregnant so you won't ovulate and what do pregnant women do? Pack on the pounds baby! Of course you're having a hard time. Now get angry at all those drug reps who sent your doc on an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii to push their product to cover-up and do damage control since Mirena has faced class-action lawsuits for causing otherwise unexplained secondary infertility. Oh, bet you didn't know about that either... um, ouch.

Here's the Paraguard study:

1. Weight Variation In A Cohort Of Women Using Copper
    IUD For Contraception.


Objective:
The objective of this study was to assess weight changes over time in reproductive-age women using non-hormonal contraception [copper intrauterine device (IUD) users]. Baseline variables recorded included age, parity, decade when the IUD was inserted and the presence of hypertension.

A total of 1,697 IUD users were followed for 7 years of use. The mean age (+/- SD) of the women at the beginning of follow-up was 27.6 +/- 5.8 years and the mean height (+/- SD) was 150 +/- 10 cm.

The mean weight (+/- SD) at the time of IUD insertion was 58.5 +/- 0.30 kg. After 5 and 7 years of follow-up, the mean weight (+/- SD) was 61.2 +/- 0.33 kg and 62.4 +/- 0.51 kg, respectively.

At insertion, the body mass index mean (+/- SD) was 24.5 +/- 0.12 and after 3 years it was 25 +/- 0.14, remaining above 25 up to the 7th year of observation. During the 7 years of follow-up, older women gained more weight than younger women.

Parity, decade of IUD insertion, and hypertension were not noted to be significant determinants of weight variation.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, this cohort of lower and middle class Brazilian copper IUD users tended to gain weight during their reproductive life, independent of other factors. These observations may improve counseling of women regarding the prevention of age-related obesity.

Reference


Hassan DF, Petta CA, Aldrighi JM, Bahamondes L, Perrotti M. "Weight variation in a cohort of women using copper IUD for contraception." Contraception. 2003 Jul; 68(1):27-30. Human Reproduction Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Caixa Postal 6181, 13084-971, SP, Campinas, Brazil.