There aren’t many threads about this and the last was over a year ago so if anyone is curious I’ll post my experience. Im in Fukuoka btw.
I looked up any clinic that had Mirena (originally wanted the copper but I want to stop my periods not make them heavy). I picked one that wasn’t a pain to get to and scheduled an appointment.
First visit took about an hour, he asked me why I wanted one and did a few test including a Pap smear and internal ultrasound. Pap was uncomfortable since it was my first but overall 2/10 on the pain scale.
Cost: 7800
Came back 2 weeks later for results and nothing abnormal came up. He instructed me to come back on the 4th day of my period. I asked if there was any medication he could give me for pain because I’ve read up on other womens experience. He mentioned a numbing agent so I signed up for it.
Came back 2 weeks later and got my Mirena. It was…very unpleasant. It shot up to a 7/10 and it was enough to make me cry out but the pain only lasted 1 minute before going back down to just being wildly uncomfortable. Chilled out in the office for 20 minutes, paid my bill, and went back to work (I know.).
Cost: 12,000
I’m about 1 month post insertion and I stopped cramping and spotting after the 1st week. I have another appointment at the end of the month to check the placement.
Important notes:
Mine was covered under insurance so that’s why I paid so little. Normally it’s about 5万円. If you have anemia because of heavy bleeding please say this! If they test your blood and you are under or borderline insurance should cover it. If you say you want it for birth control you’ll most likely pay full price.
I occasionally get a very strong cramp but no other side effects.
6 comments
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For the layman, IUD = Intrauterine device.
Was general or local anesthetic available or suggested? Any kind of painkiller? If so, was it covered by insurance? As a non-uterus owner, I only recently found out how painful it can be.
I don’t recommend going to work after lol but I had an hour left and figured I could power through. Doctors often ignore women reproductive pain. It’s barbaric that a “couple of aspirin” is the suggestion. They don’t “couple of aspirin” a vasectomy. I even get knocked out for an endoscopy! Craziness.
Seconding telling the doctor it’s for anemia or “period regulation”. When I got the mirena IUD, I paid 6400 total. My experience was not as good as yours though and getting the doctor to remove it was one of the most miserable experiences in my life.
When I got mine inserted, it was so incredibly painful. I was shaking uncontrollably and that miserable pain lasted months. I never stopped bleeding the entire time I had it (5 months), and I was told to stick it out because “other women say it isn’t bad”. I ended up going to a new hospital because they wouldn’t do anything about it. They also would only talk to my husband and try to guilt him that we didn’t have kids yet (and my anemia would get better if we just had a kid or two). It was basically like being treated like a dog or cow. They wouldn’t even consider other options that would effect my fertility. At this time, I had to get iron infusions ever two days.
So my advice is if you’re going to get an IUD, make sure you go to a decent hospital.
This is why I hope contraception for men becomes easy and available. My wife went through something similar and in the end we decided to get the IUD removed because of how uncomfortable it was