My experience with Mirena was pretty terrible . When I got it inserted , I took a few advil beforehand but was given no numbing medication or anything . Insertion was awful , I was a useless sobbing mess for the next 24 hours . The first month had daily cramping almost as bad as insertion , and I bled the whole time . After that first month everything calmed down some , but I still had nearly incapacitating cramping for over half of each month and utterly irregular periods that liked to go on for weeks . This went on for a full year , at which point I gave up and replaced it with Nexplanon . The implant has been great for me ! My periods are still totally irregular , but at least I don ' t have to pop advil like candy anymore . I am suspicious that it ' s fucking with my mood , though . This Mirena experience is pretty unlikely to happen to you , most people seem to have great experiences with it . I loved the convenience and discreetness of Mirena and I really wish it had worked better for me . But the implant serves most of the same purposes , and I think it ' s more common for women to keep bleeding on it than on the iud , if you ' re concerned about that .