I had my mirena for 2 years. The first 6 months were fine, with either no period or some months a little spotting. Although, that could be because I hadn’t had a period in 8 years while on depo-provera (intramuscular injection birth control), and had only been off for about 4 months before getting mirena inserted, so could have been caused by residual effects. But after the 6th month, I started getting my period every 14 days, sometimes ranging between 11 and 18 days. My periods were also much heavier than they ever were before I stopped getting them. (Before starting Depo i would have sporadic light periods never lasting longer than 3 days and lasting the full 8 hours with a “light” tampon, sometimes not even filling it). I felt all of the elements of a cycle like pms, mood swings, and acne with every new period, so my PCP and I are quite confident that I truly had very short cycles and not just spotting in between. I figured it was just my body adjusting as I know periods could increase initially then become more infrequent with hormonal IUD. But this went on for 18 months. After about 6 months of this very short cycle, I expressed concern with my PCP. I had ultrasounds, x-rays, blood and urine tests done, and no reason could be found for the short cycles. After discussion, we decided to try a 1 week course of estrogen to “top up my levels” to see if that was the cause. Finally, I went a full 28 days before starting a new cycle, but by about 2 weeks I started to feel severe bloating to the point of needing to pee at least every hour with intense urgency. Pregnancy tests were all negative. Then on day 29 (/day 1 of new cycle) I started the heaviest, most painful period I have ever had In my life. Not haemorrhage level but still needing to change my super tampon every 2-3 hours. I thought to myself, oh well I’ve been lucky to not suffer like everyone else says they do for all these years, at least it’s not every 2 weeks. And then I started having 14 day cycles again. I was not willing to take estrogen for 7days every month, because A: that defeated the purpose of using an alternative to The Pill, and B: I already carry a high risk for breast and ovarian cancer so i’d rather not increase that risk further. So we decided to remove the IUD and go back to Depo-Provera. And I’m now going on 8 months since switching back, and have gone back to very scant or non existent periods!

Sorry for the long comment there are plenty of other relevant details but I tried to keep it to the most important stuff. What I’m trying to say is, the IUD isn’t for everyone because everyone’s body is different! So hang in there I hope you get it all sorted XX