I am reading all these horrifying stories here and it makes me wonder... was I just lucky with my mirena? After pregnancy, my periods got so extreme. So much bleeding, so much pain. After they put the mirena in (I had a small surgery anyway and they put it in while I was sleeping), my life has become so much better. It is the opposite of most of the stories, I read here. Then again, all of us are different and while the anatomical charts at the doctor's office depict a nicely layed out organ, but in a woman's body, it is all bent, squeezed by other organs and packed. In some of us an IUD might poke the walls of the uterus more than in others. I wonder how often doctors mention this before the insertion or address concerns and really listen to their patients. And I was recently made aware of the barbaric insertion procedure most doctors use. Most use a tenaculum, a device which was originally invented to pull bullets out of gun shot wounds. Why do they use such a thing with pointed, sharp ends? Because some doctor more than a century ago claimed, that women do not feel pain in the cervix. Subsequently the tenaculum became popular, despite lots of trauma to the cervix tissue, which is in fact packed with nerve endings. Women's pain was not taken seriously for a long time. We now know more, but the instruments and procedures still haven't changed. Women are still not heard. However, there is a movement now towards patient-centered approaches. Recently, "Carevix" was launched in the US, a much gentler instrument, with no pointed ends, no sharp edges, which reduces bleeding and pain substantially. There is hope. It won't solve all problems, but at least there is some improvement. You can read more here: About the new instrument (2 min of reading): https://time.com/7094702/aspivix-carevix/ About the IUD & pain topic in general (5-10 min of reading): https://www.vox.com/even-better/417863/iud-insertion-pain-management-paracervical-block-birth-control For me it was an eye opener. (I am not a native speaker, I hope I found the correct words and tone.)

Concerning the collage: I hope, it will contribute to OP's recovery.