Love Island UK season four winner Dani Dyer says she was forced to undergo surgery after her IUD went missing in her body.
On 23 April, the reality star took to her TikTok to share her contraception scare with the Mirena intrauterine device that’s meant to last up to eight years. Dyer, 27, said she had only just gotten the IUD inserted seven months ago, just four months after she welcomed her twin daughters – Summer and Star.
Dyer said she initially thought getting a Mirena IUD would be easy and she’d heard “positive reviews” from her friends. “There, it’s done, I’ve not gotta worry about, you know, contraception,” she said. However, the hormone-releasing birth control, that’s inserted into the uterus by a healthcare professional, turned out to be more painful than beneficial.
“I had the coil — Mirena coil — fitted,” Dyer explained.
According to the Mirena website, the contraceptive prevents pregnancy for up to eight years and “treats heavy periods for up to five years in women who choose intrauterine contraception”.
At first, Dyer’s experience was seamless apart from a bit of pain after the insertion. She went as far as saying she “loved it” in the beginning. Then, her body began exhibiting a bad reaction.
“I started having, like, terrible cramps … loads and loads of bleeding,“ Dyer confessed. Still, the ITV icon ignored the symptoms, thinking this was her body getting used to the IUD. When the pain became unbearable, she started to question if the reaction was normal.
Dyer said she finally went to the doctor for an exam. There, her doctor told her they couldn’t find the IUD, as it had “gone missing”. She didn’t disclose the pelvic area where the IUD was located, but she said the placement was bad enough that had to get it removed.
The X-ray made it clear Dyer had to undergo “keyhole surgery,” otherwise referred to as a laparoscopy, a surgical operation that requires general anesthesia for the doctor to make a small incision and insert a camera to guide the removal.
When Dyer came out of surgery, she said she felt “drowsy”. For the most part, her fear of the operation stemmed from having to be put under the anesthetic. She also revealed she has a few little scars, including one that goes through her belly button.
The Mirena website lists common symptoms as “abdominal pain, pelvic pain, inflammation of the outer vagina, headache, migraine, vaginal discharge, bleeding, and dizziness”.
“You may have bleeding and spotting between menstrual periods, especially during the first three to six months. Sometimes the bleeding is heavier than usual at first. However, the bleeding usually becomes lighter than usual and may be irregular,” they state.
If the bleeding gets heavier after it’s been lighter or stays heavy, Mirena encourages you to contact a healthcare provider.
Dyer didn’t say whether her IUD had threads, but Mirena says the IUD usually has them. The company says you should always “check for the threads by reaching up to the top of your vagina with clean fingers to feel the removal threads. Do not pull on the threads”.
The position of the IUD may be compromised if you can’t feel the threads or you have to feel more than the threads.
The Independent has contacted Mirena for a comment.
