Mirena IUD/breast cancer
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Ive had mirena in for 5 years and i was diagnosed last year with stage 4. I was 28 then, no family history of breast cancer.
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I had the Mirena in when diagnosed with stage 2 - I had it taked out right away. I had my mamo in Feb and it was clear - they put the iud in and 2 months later I had a lump. I looked up and found study that they were conducting over in Europe about Mirena and Breast Cancer at the time. I talked with them and They told me that being that I was in the USA I would not be able to be part of there Study. This was back in 2007.
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I remember someone posting this a few weeks ago.
My opinion is that the amount of PR released directly into the uterus is so small I don't see it causing cancer in the breast.
The amount of PR released into the uterus is so much smaller then taking it orally. Please don't ruin the mirna for my sisters who are also heavy bleeders and would benefit more from it then oral PR!
You can always ask the FDA to investigate it at www.fda.gov .
I'm sorry we have breast cancer, however s*&^ happens to us all and cannot be explained.
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I'm having mine removed. I'm sure one day my sex life will return. tmi
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Hello ladies. I'm so sorry to hear we're all having similar experiences and concerns but it's also comforting to know I'm not alone. I am 37. I have two r little boys whom I breastfed. I'm a big runner. I eat healthy. I did not test positive for BRCA1 or 2. I am the first person in my family to have breast cancer. I just found out I have an aggressive form of breast cancer (that's already shrunk after 1 chemo treatment, thank God!) I've tried to do everything I could to reduce my risk... except that I do have the Mirena IUD. After reading more into this, I am really wondering about a potential link. Regardless, I am having the IUD removed because my ObGyn and oncologist recommended it. As another poster wrote, I have always had reservations about having something foreign in my body. I wish I had listened to my instincts.
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Hello ladies. I'm so sorry to hear we're all having similar experiences and concerns but it's also comforting to know I'm not alone. I am 37. I have two wonderful little boys whom I breastfed. I'm a big runner. I eat healthy. I did not test positive for BRCA1 or 2. I am the first person in my family to have breast cancer. I just found out I have an aggressive form of breast cancer (that's already shrunk after 1 chemo treatment, thank God!) I've tried to do everything I could to reduce my risk... except that I do have the Mirena IUD. After reading more into this, I am really wondering about a potential link. Regardless, I am having the IUD removed because my ObGyn and oncologist recommended it. As another poster wrote, I have always had reservations about having something foreign in my body. I wish I had listened to my instincts.
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my name is momo i am 25 and freaking out right now! certin cancers including breast cancer onmy paternal side of the family is very common. i had my first mirena inserted when i was 18 and had it for 3 years. i got a very bad pelvic infection with extreamly heavy bleeding and they removed it. i did not have it reimplanted and got pregnant with my son fox almost 2 years later. about 6 weeks after he was born i had another one placed, i breast fed my son until he was about 6 months old and he constantly had stomach problems , as soon as i stopped with the breast feeding he was just fine. then about 2 months later i notice an odd shapped mass right above my right nipple that gets very tender never goes away and in the past 1.5 years has gotten larger. about 6 to 8 months ago i noticed another small sized perfectly round bb size lump higher up in the breast tissue, neither of them fluctuate in sizewith my menstral cycle and they dont go away, they dont move but they are in 2 different spots and do not move it is like they are attached to my breast bone, i have had an ultra sound and doctors at group health look at it and they say they see and feel nothing but friends say they have felt it.they also told me to cut back caffine to see if it will help and it never did.
i have researched the caffine and realize that my symptoms are not consistant with what they say. i have also had other female problems im more hairy every where i have alot of discharge on a regular basis and have been breaking out in random rashes around my hips near my pelvic area but they have told me that is non related to the mirena. my nipples are constantly hard and before i had the second mirena implanted i had been a double d for almost 6 years and now my breast size is around a larger a to a small b. i dont think that anybody takes me seriously when i say i know my body and something is seriously wrong with me, i am tired and hormonal and moody for no reason at all. i just want to be me again.
has anybody my age been on the mirena and been diagnoced with similar symptoms maybe? with or with out children. i just need to know and i honestly with the research i have just done belive that it is the mirena birth control. and if that effected my breast could that have really caused my son to be colicy for the first 6 month of his life!
thank you for taking the time to read this i will let you all know what the doctors say when i get out of my newly scheduled ultra sound.i did just go to the doctor today and 2 of them felt both the lumps that im discussing left that part out sorry!:)
i just want to be prepared and make sure im not waiting to be properly diagnosed because i am "to young". any answers will help thanks again
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Hello, I was appeciative of this post as I too have been suspecting a connection with the Mirena and my dx of Breast Cancer (at age 54) , I had the Mirena in for about three years (for heavy menstral bleeding) before I could feel the lumps, I was dx with Stage 1c IDC, HER 2+, had lumpectomy, chemo and radiation, now on Herceptin. I would be most interested in a class action lawsuit, as I believe there is a link. I have no family history of breast cancer.
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I was diagnosed with a 9cm mass 10/28/11. I am 45 y.o. I have had a double mastectomy and radiation. I had the Mirena IUD for 9 years. My mother had 8 sisters and there is no breast cancer on on either side of my family. I think there is a link. I wish there was a class action that addressed our issue.
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I'm 38 years old and was recently diagnosed with BC. I had the Mirena since 2003 and again in 2008. I am the first in my family to have BC. After reading this and other forums, I am electing to have it remove before the surgery. I will have a bilat Mastectomy on 4/24/12. I am willing to participate in a case action lawsuit because I feel there is a correlation between Mirena and BC.
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I've had a Mirena IUD for about a year and a half.
Although I am the first person in my family to have BC, and it's tempting to go ahead and blame the Mirena for this (that would be such an easy out!), I don't believe it caused my BC. I was also on hormonal birth control pills for 17 years before getting the Mirena, but my mom was on the pill for over 20 years and she didn't get BC. Mirena has a lower dose of hormones than the pill.
Neither my BS nor my MO are recommending I have mine removed. (They both said to get it out if I wanted, but they didn't think it was a problem.)
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I contacted the attorney in the above post. She said the reason the Mirena can cause breast cancer is because the delivery system can be faulty by releasing too much progesterone at one time. My breast surgeon and GYN couldn't yank mine fast enough. Do some more research. Good luck with your double mastectomy. I cam going in for my permanent implants on the the same day! And I have decided to pursue a law suit.
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I have used a Mirena IUD for treatment of excessive bleeding due to uterine fibroids for a total of 7 or 8 years. I checked the manufacturer's website after I was diagnosed, and it says the Mirena is not for women who have or have had breast cancer. I suggest if you have one you ask your doc what s/he recommends. I checked with my surgeon and she says I should have it removed, but it's not urgent. So that's one more thing I need to get done before my surgery.
I'm not interested in participating in any lawsuit. Even though my cancer is hormone positive and I have no family history of breast cancer, I don't think the Mirena caused mine. I used oral contraceptives (unsuccessfully) for the same problem before the Mirena, and I must have gotten vastly more hormones from those than from the IUD. But I can't be sure the Pill had anything to do with it either. My mom used it for much longer than I did; she's now in her mid-80's and has never had cancer of any kind. I'm the third out of four siblings to be diagnosed with some type of cancer and I have to wonder if there was some environmental factor we were all exposed to as children. There is just no way to tell after all this time whether one or all or none of those things contributed to my getting breast cancer, and as far as I can tell even if I knew with certainty what caused it it wouldn't make a particle of difference to how it should be treated or my probability of being cured.
I do wonder if there is any research going on about possible Mirena/breast cancer interaction, to see if there are biomarkers or age at first use or other factors that are linked to increased or decreased cancer risk in women who use Mirena. I think it would be great if women could have more information upfront about whether they can safely use it to treat excessive bleeding without surgery or whether they should go with some other option to due to increased cancer risk. I'd definitely consider participating in such a study.
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i also had the merina iud... not sure if it were a factor though....
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I have a Mirena and I have just been diagnosed with IDC. I had an IUD (Copper) for 9 years and didn't want to take birth control pills because of the side effects and hormones. The minute my OB/GYN got the diagnosis, he called me personally to tell me that the IUD needs to be taken out ASAP. I didn't even know my Mirena had hormones included until three weeks in and lots of side effects. I wish I would have listened to my inner voice sooner...I believe there is a connection. The doctors have to know that too, or mine wouldn't have told me to get an ultrasound immediately and get the IUD removed. I would love to know for sure and would be willing to participate in studies or law suits.
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I used the mirena for almost 12 years before being diagnosed with bc (DCIS/IDC) - I'm 52. Not hormone positive so not sure if there's a connection. Doc removed iud before I started chemo - but that was because of chemo lowering my white blood cell count. She never ever mentioned any worry or panic. Will be interesting to see what transpires.
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If you have the Mirena IUD, and are PR+ you really need to get this out! A progestin is a synthetic progestogen that has progestinic effects similar to progesterone.
I had a regular lady/breast exam, no lumps. A month or so later I developed ovarian cysts and took two months of birth control to shrink the cysts. That worked, however, 5 months later, I had developed a lump, which was aggressive. I was told to immediatly get the IUD out as it was feeding the cancer. I might add, as soon as I had it removed, a lot of the awful symptoms I had cleared up - mostly the brain fog.
I was NED for 2 years but now I am stage 4. I believe the Mirena caused the cancer.
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I have had the Mirena IUD inserted 3 times to treat my endometriosis. I am 35 and just discovered a DCIS lump in my left breast. I have no family history of breast cancer. I have had the lump and sentinal lymph nodes removed, and get the results this week, so will know then if the cancer has spread. I am still in shock over the diagnosis. It was so sudden. The lump was just there, virtuallly overnight, and big. I am going to ask my surgeon this afternoon if I should have the Mirena removed, but if I do, I'm not sure what treatment options are available for my endometriosis. Is the Mirena link under medical investigation? Have others tried different hormone treatments that could be contributing? I was on an extremely high dose of Ralovera for 6 months when I was first diagnosed with endometriosis. Could this be a risk factor, too?
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I also have no family history of breast cancer and was just diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. I am awaiting the pathology results to see what stage I am in. I had a Mirena IUD from 2001 to 2005 then another from 2007 to 2012. I am 49 years old. The informational CD my doctor gave me after my diagnosis states that "breast cancer occurs when the signals get confused". I cannot come to any other conclusion as to why this would happen than having an iud releasing a hormone into my uterus. My periods stopped the entire time I was on the Mirena IUD. Obviously this would signal "confusion" to the breast tissues. I had the last Mirena IUD removed on Feb. 29, 2012. I felt 2 lumps about a month later. They both revealed IDC, tubular carcinoma and follicular carcinoma.
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Hi my name is Christine Jack from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and I was also diagnosed with Stage 3 DCIS in November 2005. I had a masectomy in December 2005. I also had a mirena IUD three years earlier. There is no family history of breast cancer in my family and my husband and I have always felt that the Mirena IUD was the cause but could not prove it. After my check-up after chemotherapy in 2006, my Oncologist told me not to have any hormone replacement therapy because I was Estrogen +. We had mentioned that I still had the Mirena IUD and he told me to have it removed as soon as possible. In October of 2006 I had a complete hysterectomy because I had large non cancerous fibroids on my ovaries. Fibroids are a side effect to the Mirena IUD. Thank you all for sharing your personal stories.
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I had only used birth control briefly in my early 20s and then hadn't used anything chemical until I had my Mirena placed in 2005. I had the first one with no incident and had a second one placed in the fall of 2010 and then found my lump in the fall/winter of 2011. My current MO is insistent that I need to pull it so I was doing some research and found that there seems to be a connection. I only ever used it to control my heavy periods because I was assured that the hormones were all localized! It's interesting to see that they believe some have a faulty deliver system since I didn't have an issue with one and then did when the second one was placed.
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My twin sister is 38 and had the mirena for years! she just found a small lump by her nipple and it is stage 1 breast cancer and she has two kids!! she is very upset!!
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I was diagnosed in Sept 2011, having had the Mirena for almost 5years my doctor wanted to take it right out. I have to wonder after 4 plus years if it played a part.....not happy.....trying to figure this all out........
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I had my second Mirena IUD put in in late 2009. I discovered a sizeable lump in my left breast in early 2010. Diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer - ER positive! GYN and oncologist always insisted there was no connection but there was no history of cancer in my family. I was 43 in 2009 when I discovered the lump. My health insurance through my employer changed and I had to find another oncologist who in turn INSISTED that I have the Mirena removed immediately. I now have the copper IUD and one less boob. In my opinion, there has to be a connection!
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llombard - i am currently getting an appt set up to have the Mirena removed. I am interested in the Paragard. Have you had any issues or problems with it. I am considering getting it as I find the IUD concept so easy to use as birth control.
Thanks
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I've had the Paragard for about two months and so far, so good. For some reason it was a little more painful getting this inserted than was the Mirena but we did do the swap all in one procedure. Not sure if that made it harder on me. Ive noticed a couple of spasms that are pretty uncomfortable that if they continue Ill report it to my Dr. But for now Im satisfied. Good luck and keep in touch.
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I was jus serching for any one with ANY connection with the Mirena and BC..My sister diag st 4 at 30, and also had the Mirena...I had it placed to 2 months ago,and will have it removed, I think "they" dont have enough studies or researched enough to say, it cannot cause BC since it only stays in the uterus..but for Hormone + BC, our "female" orangans DO produce estrogen/hormones...and who said it does not go into the system, if not the system, its forcing our bodies to make an un-natural change and (could it?) be changing factors?...I did also find a study done at Michigan State University that found a link between the hormone/synthetic or not to BC.
Sure makes you wonder.
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I also had the Mirena prior to BC. I had it removed right after my UMX surgery. My gyno says it didn't cause it, but who can really be sure? I will always wonder if I had chosen the Paraguard instead if I would be on this site at all.
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The following was found at
http://berlex.bayerhealthcare.com/html/products/pi/Mirena_PI.pdf
ADVERSE REACTIONS
The following most serious adverse reactions associated
with the use of Mirena are discussed in greater detail in
the Warnings and Precautions section (5):
• Ectopic Pregnancy [see Warnings and Precautions
(5.1)]
• Intrauterine Pregnancy [see Warnings and Precautions
(5.2)]
• Group A streptococcal sepsis (GAS) [see Warnings
and Precautions (5.3)]
• Pelvic Inflammatory Disease [see Warnings and
Precautions (5.4)]
• Embedment [see Warnings and Precautions (5.6)]
• Perforation [see Warnings and Precautions (5.7)]
• Breast Cancer [see Warnings and Precautions (5.10)]5.10 Breast Cancer
Women who currently have or have had breast cancer,
or have a suspicion of breast cancer, should not use
hormonal contraception because breast cancer is a
hormone-sensitive tumor.
Spontaneous reports of breast cancer have been received
during postmarketing experience with Mirena. Because
spontaneous reports are voluntary and from a population
of uncertain size, it is not possible to use postmarketing
data to reliably estimate the frequency or establish causal
relationship to drug exposure. Two observational studies
have not provided evidence of an increased risk of breast
cancer during the use of Mirena.0
