"my complicated experience with the insertion of the copper iud. it was &quot;one of the most difficult &amp; complicated iud insertions i&#039;ve had in a very long time&quot; quoting the words of my gynecologist md. now i have not been sexually active for over a year and a half (by choice) &amp; i&#039;ve never had kids so that for one was a concern for my doctor since she said i might be very tight &amp; feel pain. anywhom i am 23 and recently decided to date again &amp; wanted to have a convinient birth control that won&#039;t affect my weight or cause acne since acne has recently been a new battle for me, so my first step was hitting the internet for options. after reading many reviews for multiple birth controls i decided on the copper para guard which is for 10-12 years. now i went to my doctor and had a screening for stds &amp; hiv which is protocol to any birth control procedure. then pregnancy tests were taken a few days before the insertion and the day of the insertion, after everything came out negative i was ready for my iud. i was schedule to go in on tuesday september 1, 2015 so i went in with anticipation of pain and i was very nervous. mostly because it was something new for me to have a speculum inside me since i just had my first pap smear ,ever, two weeks prior to the iud insertion. as my doctor placed the speculum i had some discomfort, she had trouble finding my cervix, after some time she had everything positioned right and began to try and dilate my cervix, right when she started i began to feel extreme cramping. my doctor could not get her tool that she used to dilate my cervix to stay in, i was too tight due to the fact that i&#039;ve never had kids so it wasn&#039;t easy, my cervix kept pushing the prob out. she attempted a few more times until i couldn&#039;t take the pain anymore because the cramping became so severe i began to cry. now i know i sound ridiculous crying but i have a pretty high tolerance for pain &amp; i never understood how many woman couldn&#039;t take the cramping they had when on their period because i don&#039;t experience cramping on my periods, at least until now. i now have so much more sympathy for those who do have this pain every month. my doctor gave me other birth control options because she wasn&#039;t successful in inserting the iud but she knew i didn&#039;t want others so she offered to use an anesthetic on my cervix to help with the insertion (which is not normally a part of the procedure but since i had a special case she offered this option to me). i was not happy with the fact that i had to have a needle inserted in my cervix but this was the birth control i wanted and i was going to do whatever to get it. i was in too much pain that day so i had to come back the next morning. so here i go wednesday morning into my doctors office, laying down ready to get a needle inserted into my cervix which terrified me because i already knew how painful it was but i didn&#039;t feel a thing when she put the anesthetic, i was told i would feel a slight sting and some burning sensation but i didn&#039;t feel anything. it took her about 15 min to position the iud correctly, she had to dilate me 8cm to get a good view and make sure i had a successful insertion. i felt nothing &amp; then she was done. right after she had me lay down for a few minutes then had me slowly sit up, i felt like i was going to faint, the md said my eyes were not focusing on her and i was so pale. at that point my whole face and hands where numb. she stayed there with me until i regained full blood flow to my upper body. fyi my doctor said some woman actually faint after the procedure &amp; in some rare cases they even have seizure because the pain of dilating the cervix is so intense. i was lucky of not having any cramps because my cervix was numb. 8 hrs later the numbness began to fade &amp; the pain started, i got prescribed 600 tylenol which helped a little. i spotted the next 3 days, i had to use pantie liners. then my period came 1 week early just 4 days after i got my iud placed, it was very heavy the first 3 days with medium cramping and my period lasted 5 1/2 days. my usual periods post the iud was 4 days with only 1 heavy day. i have now had my iud going on 3 weeks and i have little spotting every day so i use liners all the time. now the part that i was most nervous about was the whole &quot;me checking if i can feel the iud strings&quot; its something i&#039;m a bit uncomfortable doing mostly because i&#039;ve never done it before so the first couple of times i tried to check for the strings i couldn&#039;t feel anything so i began to freak out and rushed to my doctors office after my unsuccessful attempts. she said to wait until my first period was over and then to try again. i tried again after my period and i still couldn&#039;t feel anything then i found a way to check that best fits me since i have small hands so i&#039;ll share my wisdom with you guys lol. i check in the shower every morning i lift one leg as if i&#039;m going to shave then i insert my pointer and i squat a little which helps and i&#039;m able to feel the tip of the strings. i have not had any cramping since my period and my discharge has reduced. i&#039;m very happy with my iud &amp; i plan on using it safely and responsibly as i have heard many woman have got pregnant with the iud. i still plan on using condoms because of stds and i got the iud as a backup just in case. i plan on keeping it for the full 10 year unless there are any complications. sorry for the long story but i for one would have loved to hear the entire experience someone had so i decided to share mine. hope it helps at least one person :)"