“Women Must Know That Mirena Causes Miscarriages”

Lansing, MIOn her doctor’s advice, Carolle had a Mirena IUD for birth control implanted in 2006. “He said it was my best option, but he didn’t mention any Mirena side effects,” she says. “I think the Mirena sales representatives sold him a bill of goods.” And that “bill of goods” transfers to the patient. Sadly, Carolle didn’t know about Bayer Mirena warnings until she had a miscarriage.

“My doctor said that Mirena was safer than Yasmin and Yaz and other birth control pills so he did give me options,” says Carolle, “but what is the lesser of two evils?”

Carolle had the Mirena implanted for five years without incident. In 2011, it was time to get a new one: her doctor said that the IUD device has a five-year life span so another two years went by with the second Mirena. Carolle already had two children and she wasn’t in a hurry to have another.

“After seven years, it got to the point that I didn’t feel like myself, because you don’t have a period with the IUD so I had it taken out,” Carolle explains. “I got pregnant just two months later, but about eight weeks into my pregnancy I started bleeding really badly - it was horrible.”

Carolle called her doctor; he said it sounded like a miscarriage and there wasn’t much they could do, but if the bleeding or pain got really bad to come into the office. “One day it got so bad that I wound up in the hospital and saw the on-call doctor,” Carolle says. “She did a pelvic exam and the first thing she said was, ‘Oh my.’ You don’t want to hear a doctor say that. ‘Something is wrong, this doesn’t look normal - I am pretty sure you have lost the baby,’ she said. I went home, devastated. I had an ultrasound a few days later and that determined that indeed I had lost the baby. That is when I began to research Mirena miscarriages.”

Back at her doctor’s office, Carolle says he was still in denial about the Mirena. “I told him about the conversation I had with the hospital doctor,” Carolle says. “Even though her bedside manner was lacking, I think her honesty worked in my favor. She was really surprised by what she saw and scared me when she said ‘that doesn’t look normal,’ but she only wrote on my medical chart that I had a lot of scar tissue. I believe there is only one explanation for that.

“I had two healthy babies before getting this Mirena IUD and I had never miscarried before. I am not trying to get pregnant now but at the same time I don’t want to go on any birth control, especially an IUD. I believe it screws up your body.”

Carolle says she would like to have another child but she worries that a miscarriage could happen again. She was surprised, however, that the Mirena was in the right place when she had it removed - many women have suffered uterine perforations and other serious side effects when the Mirena has migrated.

“I really thought it might have shifted and caused some permanent damage,” Carolle adds. “Doctors push the IUD and say there is no risk but that is so wrong, there are huge risks. Nobody would get an IUD if the Mirena warning adds, ‘May cause miscarriage’ or ‘You won’t be able to have children.’

“I am glad of the opportunity to get my voice heard and I hope I can do something - at least warn other women of Mirena and get involved in a Mirena lawsuit. Perhaps collectively we can compete with the drug company because they need to know their product can cause miscarriages.”