A few months after I had it inserted, I began having HORRIBLE, sharp pains in my uterus that would literally stop me in my tracks. I would have to grip something near me to prevent myself from screaming. It felt like a contraction and could last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. I have a high pain tolerance but this was the worst pain I'd ever felt. My doctor did an ultrasound and said I had formed an ovarian cyst, but it was harmless, formed because of the surge in hormones from the IUD placement, and should go away soon. Over the past two years, these cramps slacked up some but I still had these occasional pains. Some other symptoms I suffered with is extreme fatigue, moodiness, depression, anxiety (I do have social anxiety to begin with but it has worsened), irritability, breakthrough random bleeding, constant bloating, I could feel the IUD inside me when I would turn a certain way, and my periods were lighter but some months they lasted 10 days, other months they didn't come at all.

I am very in tune to my body and over the past year or so, I have not felt NORMAL. I have this plastic thing in me, I was not happy and myself, I just never felt GOOD. I felt like a crazy person! But I didn't want to get it removed and try yet ANOTHER birth control method (I tried two pills before this IUD that did not agree with my body).

So a few weeks ago, I started researching self-removal of the IUD. I read literally hundreds of reviews of women removing their own IUD with no complications. After all, all the doctor does is pull the strings and remove it, too. Of course, they can monitor if something goes wrong, but I live minutes away from a hospital so I decided to go for it and remove it myself. I just started a new job, couldn't take off of work to have a doctors appt, and I didn't have the money to pay for it, either. And I had a wellness visit a month ago and my dr reassured me the IUD was fine and not implanted in my uterus. Good to go.

I waited until after my hubby and I had sex (using the pull out method bc sperm can live for 3-5 days) because your cervix is more open after orgasm. I got a grip on the string (singular, the other string was MIA) and SLOWLY pulled. The only pain I felt was when I lost my grip, let go, and my cervix had "sucked" the IUD back into my uterus. So I grabbed again, slowly pulled, until that plastic devil was dangling in my hand. 

A wave of relief came over me, it was truly inexplainable. This thing has caused me problems for so long, and the dog days were over!! I popped an Advil as I did have a little MILD cramping, and went to sleep! I woke up this morning feeling free, I am not cramping or bleeding yet, and my stomach is already flatter and free from the constant bloating I had. I will update this post with my experience over the next few days, but I wanted to share my experience with you all in hopes that it would help someone. 

I am not a medical professional by any means and would recommend you always contact your doctor before doing this, but if the means or funds are just not there, do your research and do what you have to do. 

Now to get my hormone and endocrine tests to get that straightened out, and see if the patch might work for me in the future. Or who knows, I might free myself from birth control once and for all! I suffer from heavy, painful periods which is why I started BC in the first place, but it might be that my hormones are out of whack and BC makes them out of whack even further. We shall see!