IUDs for petite women

Michelle

There's a thread on Metafilter some of you may be interested in by a fellow petite woman looking for an IUD that will fit:

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Quote:

Why don't they make a special IUD that's a better size for nulliparous women? Is there anything I can do about the fact that I'm too small?

I am just under 5' and a tiny person all around, never been pregnant, and was told after a manual exam that I am not a candidate for Mirena, unless I am "very motivated." My doctor is a huge believer in IUDs in general, but says for me, the chance of expulsion and perforation is really high, and the thing might just be impossible to place, period. I am guaranteed pain and discomfort if I try. She says if I really want she'll take a shot, but that there's a really high chance that the device won't work as intended. This sucks, because I was all excited about the effectiveness and convenience and not worrying about anything for 5 years.

Should I go for it despite the chance of failure?

And more importantly, why isn't there a special size of IUD for nulliparous women?! Given that most women wait longer now before having kids, and many have no kids, ever, it seems absolutely foolish that no one has addressed this. Is there something in the works with the FDA, or available anywhere outside the US? I'll go on taking the pill, but I want my Mirena, damnit!

swetmb01

Hi, just letting you know, in case anybody else is petite and wants an IUD, that I strongly suspect the reason a Mirena is not the best option for this woman is not because she is small but because she is nulliparous (ie has not had any children).
I'm a medical student, studying for my gyne exams at the moment, so I'm hoping I'm right, otherwise I'm in trouble tomorrow! I've seen LOTS of mirenas inserted and never seen a dr tell a patient they were too small for one. Its just more difficult to insert one in a women whos cervix has not been stretched a little bit by carrying a baby.

Michelle

Thanks for the clarification swetmb01, hopefully that will help petite women considering an IUD

DarkFae

I had no idea this was a problem but I guess it makes sense. There really is not a lot of options out there if you don't fit into what they consider "average". Which makes no sense at all because there is way more diversity medical wise than any other field out there.

alx2

I also believe that the reason the doctor did not want to place the iud is because of the no children thing. Also, as an aside, how are you on birth control pills? I've never had a reaction to any med but hormones like birth control pills make me sick sick. I just tried taking Yasmin and I had very noticeable severe side effects after one pill, that is the same hormone in the Mirena iud. I got the paraguard iud and this is the third month and it's okay, but I had to get one to take Accutane since hormonal forms of birth control are out for me.

swetmb01

hi alx2, just had a thought regarding your problem with hormonal contraception. Yasmin is a pill containing both progesterone and oestrogen (or estrogen if your american), and unfortunately it's not tht uncommon for women to have not so pleasant reaction (probably because combined pills are so widely used). Mirena on the other hand contains only progesterone, and as lots of women find that their reaction stems mainly from the oestrogone conponent of the pill, they are ok to use mirena. There are also other progesteone only contraception available like a pill (wouldn't recomend it as it must be taken within the same 2 hour period each day, so it's too easy to forget), depo-provera (a three monthly injection) and implanon (injected capsule thingy that needs to be replaced every 5 years).

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Michelle Administrator Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 331 Blog Entries: 5	Thanks for the clarification swetmb01, hopefully that will help petite women considering an IUD