"i took mirena for 3 years and switch today to paraguard instead. insertion wasn&#039;t too painful and hurt much less than the iud i have now. the removal was actually hurt more) anyways, the first year i had irregular periods, but no weight gain, no moodiness, no pain during sec, or lack of sex drive-  so that was great. the reason i chose to remove it, is that the last 6 months or so, i had much more spotting, i thought my periods would go away, but they never did, and it became highly unpredictable. i am hoping that if i have to have a period, i&#039;d like to know when it is, even if it&#039;s heavier. i am now going to give the paraguard a try and see how it goes, if the side effects are worse than mirena, i will likely be switch back."