Anxiety / Depression and IUDs

"Over all, compared with nonusers, users of hormonal contraception had a 40 percent increased risk of depression after six months of use. Some types of contraceptives carried even greater risk. Women who used progestin-only pills more than doubled their risk, for example, while THOSE WHO USED the levonorgestrel IUD (brand name Mirena) TRIPLED THEIR RISK. The risk persisted after adjusting for age, educational level and other factors."
-New York Times Article

"Birth control pills and copper IUDs (intra-uterine devices for birth control) . These two birth control methods definitely affect copper metabolism in the body. While some women can handle them, others experience depression, anxiety, personality shifts and many horrible side effects from them, either acute or chronic. This aspect of women’s “sexual revolution” has probably caused more disasters in women’s health than any other. "
-Dr Lawrence Wilson

---

Revised February 28, 2023
Originally posted March 6, 2017

by Tamara Wilder

I've been thinking about ANXIETY a lot lately.
What I have mostly been pondering is what is it all about and what about the IUD is causing this reaction (or cluster of reactions) in so many people?

This little essay on anxiety is far from complete but might be useful.
Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated:)

Many people claim that Anxiety and Depression are just two different sides of the same coin. Considering this is true, then anything written here can also apply to Depression. I mainly dealt with Anxiety issues so use that word here.

---

Anxiety & Depression
are always at the top of the list in polls on adverse effects taken on our
IUD Side Effects Support Group

---

WHAT IS CAUSING IT?

If it were only copper toxicity, then we wouldn't be seeing it in so many Mirena users. If it's just silicone toxicity then we wouldn't be seeing it in so many Paragard users. Why does it go away right away after removal for some of us, persist long after removal for others or even worsen or come on as a new adverse effect following removal for others?

What I'm coming up with is that there seem to be four main ways that the IUDs affect our body / mind connection - which must be at the root of this anxiety reaction.

1) The BASIC INFLAMMATION OF THE UTERUS that all IUDs cause simply by being inserted and causing irritation in that very sensitive area, which many have said is, along with our ovaries, "directly connected to our pineal & pituitary glands". It would then make sense that an irritation in our womb would also be an irritant of our mind. Many people report that their intuition is turned off and that when the IUD is removed it feels like a switch is flipped and it is suddenly back on.

2) Reaction to a FOREIGN OBJECT inside of our bodies. A self defense mechanism that we depend on is that our bodies get alerted and respond to something foreign inside of them. The reactions to this event are also being discussed in relation to many (if not all) other medical devices which are placed inside the body and the common report is that issues like anxiety are often not recognized or accepted as being related, even though they are happening to a lot of people, not just from IUDs. If our body senses a foreign object, it is does whatever it can to either expel or protect against that “invader” and it sends “warning signal” in the form of anxiety or a sense that “something is wrong”.

Unfortunately, many of us look for the source of what is “wrong” in the outside world or in our minds instead of looking inside other parts of our bodies to find the source of the true problem. I feel that this “body invasion” issue was one of the main causes of my anxiety. My body literally felt like it was being attacked but my brain couldn't figure out what was wrong and was therefore on edge and fearful about everything. To me, the fact that my anxiety disappeared almost immediately after removal tells me that this was one of the main causes for me personally.

3) The HORMONAL IMBALANCE caused by either the hormones present in the Mirena, Liletta, Skyla or other hormonal IUDs can easily cause anxiety and it's related symptoms simply due to our hormones "being out of whack". Although they are sold as “non-hormonal”, the copper in the Paragard or other copper IUDs causes our bodies to create prostaglandins which are closely connected with the production of estrogen and progesterone; so hormonal imbalances can also be caused by copper IUDs as well. It seems to me that these kind of imbalances take much longer for our body to recover from once the IUD has been removed and it would therefore make sense that anxiety that either worsens or doesn't go away very soon after removal might be more tied to hormonal imbalances as main cause.

4) The PRODUCTS USED in the IUDs: copper, silicone, nickel, barium, etc….. are all being implicated in toxicities building in many people's bodies. Anxiety and its related symptoms are also regularly listed as being signs of COPPER TOXICITY and SILICONE TOXICITY. Similar to hormone imbalances, it would make sense that anxiety caused by the buildup of these toxic materials would also not improve immediately after removal, but would instead diminish or improve as detoxification is undergone and the toxicity is removed. This might be seen as a more steady decline in the intensity of the symptoms, or a short resurgence when there is either a toxic buildup or a sudden release of toxic material from some part of the body. If detox is undertaken too quickly, it might also then result in a worsening of the anxiety. I had copper toxicity pretty badly and, although I am grateful to not have had the anxiety return in force, I have experiences short times of a similar feeling start to creep in, usually along with other toxicity symptoms and when I fell behind on my detoxification protocols. These thankfully short episodes have then gone away when I am able to catch up on my detox.

Of course, it is also very likely that many of us are experiencing anxiety and it's related symptoms that are being caused simultaneously by one or more of these things. This is probably true for most of our IUD adverse effects. Some of them may be more from one cause, others may be primarily from a different one; but put all together we are each experiencing our own unique mix of cause and effect.

These are just some thoughts but hopefully something in here will strike familiar and be helpful to some of you who are struggling with this very real, very serious and very debilitating "side effect".

May each and every one of you find a way to stop whatever is triggering this experience in your brain and may you once again find joy and peace:)

---

---

---

---