Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods and hormones
A discussion of the benefits and side effects of the copper IUD (ParaGard) and the hormonal IUD (Mirena).
Copper IUDs or coils (ParaGard or the new Miudella) are non-hormonal methods of birth control.
The main advantage of a copper IUD over hormonal methods is that it contains no contraceptive medication and therefore permits natural ovulatory menstrual cycles.
Of course, it also has some downsides.
Hormonal birth control can negatively affect metabolic health and contribute to weight gain. Some types are more likely to do so than others, depending on the type of progestin.
But before we get to the question of “which progestin,” I’ll just point out that the biggest problem with hormonal birth control is that it (usually) switches off hormones.
Almost all types of hormonal birth control switch off ovarian function and, therefore, switch off the ovarian hormones estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone. Here’s a bit more about each method.
Some basic body literacy:
A proper period or menstrual bleed is a bleed at the end of a natural ovulatory cycle. Any other type of bleed is either a pill bleed (a withdrawal bleed from stopping contraceptive drugs) or an anovulatory cycle (a bleed when there has been no ovulation).
A menstrual cycle is, therefore, an “ovulatory cycle,” in which ovulation is the main event.
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