Nova T 380 > Reviews (22)

I had the T-Safe 380 copper IUD inserted about a month ago. To give you some background, I am a 20 y.o. who is nulliparous and has regular, short and light periods naturally, studying full time at university (very busy schedule, likely to forget taking BC pills etc.) and I am in a monogamous relationship with my boyfriend of two years. I have never touched a hormone in my life and never wish to either. I am almost definite that I do not want children in future life as well so a sterilisation would have been ideal for me, however a lot of professionals would not follow through because of my age. Alas, the copper IUD seemed to be the next best thing: hormone-free, MORE effective than hormonal BC pills (with an average of LESS than just 1 woman out of 100 accidentally falling pregnant with the IUD in 5 years! Source: FPA: Sexual Health Direct), I don't have to remember to take it every day and it is effective for up to 10 years! For women that do want children at a later date the IUD can be easily removed by a clinician with fertility instantly restored and unaffected. When I first read up about this 18 months ago it sounded almost completely ideal but I was scared about the side effects and the actual procedure itself, after reading lots of horror stories online.

My boyfriend had been very patient with me with us using solely male condoms over the last 2 years, so after building up the guts I called the local GUM clinic in town to arrange to have one done. There was a small waiting list (had to wait about 2 weeks) because it was done on the NHS, so I didn't have to spend even a penny woohoo! All those incentives, why did I put it off so long just because some other women didn't have a good time with it? Remember you are your own person and your reaction will be totally unique. Before you have the device fitted I had to be checked for any STIs that I could have potentially received from my boyfriend (although very unlikely), so I needed to go for a routine checkup. This was my first time ever in a place like that and I found the general swab taking etc. a bit weird but not uncomfortable, the nurse was very friendly and reassuring (she wasn't doing my IUD). Then she told me I didn't need to go in the day before because I was going to get the checks done right before the insertion (I had to get up at stupid o'clock to go in for it too - d'oh!). So after the swabbing she gave me some one-off dose of Azithromycin antibiotics just in case I had something. My God, I was really glad I had the check done a day before insertion. The antibiotics had some very adverse effects on me and I had to try my best to not throw up my entire gut contents and I had the sh*ts all next morning. Could you imagine all of that and your body getting used to the IUD at the same time?

Anyway, the next day in the afternoon I had the insertion procedure (which was now quicker because I had already had the routine checks the day before). I sat down with the woman who then spent the next 10 minutes chatting with me, making sure I wanted to get this done.

After she saw my boyfriend could have potentially given me an STI from a one-night stand previously, she told me I may not be able to have it done that day! She clearly saw how much I had researched this method of BC and I think I actually knew more than she did! She went to confirm with another doctor to make sure my chances of getting a pelvic inflammatory disease were minimal indeed and then we were away. They left me to strip my lower half, very similar to what I had to do to get the checks and the pap smear. When they came back in they got themselves set up and were chatting to me about general stuff to help me relax. I was shaking a bit at this point possibly because I was a little cold and also just plain ol' scared.

Then the clinician inserted a clear speculum; totally painless, and then squirted the neck of my cervix with some anaesthetic gel (which I think they just use as a placebo). Then came the nerve-wracking bit, measuring my uterus. She warned me I may feel crampy, then I had to stop talking and concentrate on my breathing. The sensations were like I had come on my period and I felt mild to slightly stronger period pains. I should also mention that I was not menstruating at the time either. That's when I remembered half-way through that I totally forgot to take pain killers beforehand to lessen the pain. The next thing I heard was 'Okay, it's in!' and I remembered feeling like 'Wow! That was quick!' and then the cramping subsided almost totally. The pain out of a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being almost normal and 10 being like agony) I rated it about a 4.5 or a 5 at the WORST. It wasn't even really painful, just more uncomfortable. They left me for a sec to keep lying down and just get my senses together (didn't take much longer than a couple of minutes), then they left me to get dressed again. They supplied with me with a very thick underwear pad for any bleeding (the Dr. informed me I had started to spot slightly upon insertion). I was still feeling fine but like I had come on my period.

30 minutes later I took two Feminax pills to ease the cramping sensations, after all I did just have a foreign object shoved in further than any man has been before LOL!! The pain killers were adequate in reducing the period-like sensations. I also didn't have sex for about a week after (1: because of the antibiotics you're not allowed to have sex for a week and 2: it's a good idea to let the IUD settle in properly although it's effective from word go).

For the next two-three days I needed to take pain killers once every 4 hours to numb the cramps up a bit. The night just after insertion I had some weird 'gurgling' noises coming from my uterus (I'm sure it wasn't my GI tract) and I had to be careful. Unfortunately I was watching a comedy film that night and all the laughing didn't help! I thought it would accidentally make it come out but they are far more robust than I previously thought. I woke up on a few separate occasions on the 1st night because of my body reacting to the instrument (not badly, just more cramping).

A hot water bottle would have been ideal. I had some very minor spotting over the next couple of days with the pain dying down significantly, my body getting used to the IUD being there.

So after a week I had sex for the first time with the IUD, I was so scared that my boyfriend would feel the strings, but the clinician prior to insertion showed me what these strings were like, they were very tiny nylon ones that she cut from about an inch past my cervix, long enough for me to feel but not long enough to be obtrusive. My boyfriend said he didn't notice which worried me that it had become displaced or even fallen out altogether, then I checked and found the strings immediately, which were not sharp, annoying or anything else. After a few times my partner said he could feel something up there, but it wasn't bothersome in any way at all. Needless to say that was a relief. After the first couple of days when the pain went away, I have not noticed the IUD being there once - it's great!

I currently have only had one period on my IUD so far. Typically my periods are not at all heavy; at most I use a few super or superplus tampons on the heaviest day and just regulars on the other days, for about 3-4 days usually. Day one of the 1st period was fine, I was bracing myself to expect the floodgates to open and to be curled up with agony...nothing. It was a few dribbles on the first day, gradually getting heavier. On days 2-3 I can tell you that my flow was significantly heavier than normal, but nothing that I couldn't cope with. On day 5 my period came to a stop, only 1 day more than what it normally was. I didn't even need to take one pain killer! Fantastic. It is claimed in many of the information leaflets that heavier bleeding will become better over time too.

All in all I am so glad I got the copper IUD and I really regret not getting it done sooner. I wrote this review because I was so put-off by all the negative ones and when I eventually got it, it worked out fabulously for me so far. The procedure was nowhere nearly as bad as I had preconceived and there are hardly any side effects, best of all 0% hormones and no resulting weight changes, mood swings, skin problems etc. as well as the fact I'm not damaging the fresh-water ecosystems that oestrodiols in hormone based BC have done. Really brings peace of mind. If you are worried that the IUD will make your periods much heavier my hypothesis is that for women who have had children and/or were previously on hormonal BC, there is an increase in the surface area of the uterus (i.e. more surface area for lining to accumulate, after being stretched by a growing foetus) and in fact it is hormone WITHDRAWAL, not the IUD all by itself that are causing periods to appear to be much heavier than they actually are. BUT the periods were hormonally regulated and needless to say once you have the copper IUD, the hormones are no longer regulating your cycles because they are no longer required.

This is why I would stress to see how your body would react without hormones first if you are currently on them and thinking of getting the non-hormonal IUD because so many women are out-of-touch with their natural biorhythms. In that case the hormonal IUD could help, however IMO that is defeating the point because you might as well just go back to hormones altogether, a major point for getting the IUD is NO hormones.