How I got pregnant whilst I had an IUD coil fitted which ended in a miscarriage

Falling pregnant whilst I had an IUD coil fitted as contraception was a huge surprise for me. I wasn’t even thinking about trying for a baby at the time. Then having a miscarriage really knocked me for six.  

I found out I was pregnant whilst I had an IUD coil fitted

Any coil wearer knows that periods are heavier and more painful when you are fitted with an IUD coil. I always needed painkillers to get me through my time of the month when I had an IUD coil fitted. Thats’s probably why only around 10% of women choose to get an IUD fitted. However an IUD coil is very effective and less than 1% of women get pregnant whilst they have one fitted.

It was early May and my period was much lighter than normal. I didn’t think anything of it until the light bleeding continued for more than two weeks. It didn’t seem right. Although I didn’t feel any different, my boyfriend suggested I should take a pregnancy test. I had no kind of feelings that I was pregnant. The following day during my lunchbreak, I chose the cheapest pregnancy test on the shelf. I returned to work, went straight to the toilet and peed on the stick. The pregnancy test showed positive. I was completely dumbstruck.  After finding out I was pregnant, I went home, told my boyfriend then and calculated when the baby was due. Trying to get our heads around how this baby would fit into our lives. We were planning to go travelling with our backpacks for a year and all of a sudden, things were very different. It was early May and the baby was due in December. 

My IUD coil fell out without me noticing

A trip to the gyno a few days later confirmed that I was just over 7 weeks pregnant. We saw the tiny little shape on the ultrasound and could hear a heartbeat.

Picture of an IUD CoilThere was no IUD coil to be seen. I was completely shocked!  Firstly, I really did not expect to be pregnant. Secondly, how could I have missed my IUD coil falling out? An IUD coil fits into the palm of your hand. Getting an IUD coil fitted is quite painful. How on earth did I miss it falling out then?

Only later did I find out that under 1% of women could get pregnant with an IUD coil. The majority of these cases happen when the IUD coil slips out. Apparently we are supposed to perform a regular self check by feeling if the threads of the coil are still there. 

My thoughts after finding out I was pregnant after my IUD coil fell out

When you find out you are pregnant, your life changes overnight. 

I started thinking about settling down, if I had enough money, what kind of mum or parents we would be, lifestyle changes…and many, many more. My boyfriend wasn’t ready. What would I do if he felt stuck by the situation? I wanted to go travelling too. There were so many different scenarios being played out in my head. 

I wasn’t in a good place. I felt like an emotional wreck finding out I was pregnant unexpectantly. Some days I couldn’t hold back the tears, which I found so embarrassing whilst at work. I couldn’t consider not keeping the baby. Although I felt trapped by being pregnant now when it was not planned, I also decided to accept my pregnancy.

Missed miscarriage at 8.5 weeks

The spotting continued and I went back to the gyno for a further check up a couple of weeks later. Continued spotting in early pregnancy is something that should always be checked by the doctor.Between the time of finding out I was pregnant and my next scan I had gradually gotten my head around accepting that I was pregnant and that my whole life was changing.However, the ultrasound showed that my tiny baby’s heart had stopped beating at around 8 and a half weeks. I had what is termed as a missed miscarriage. 

Miscarriage symptoms and a D&C surgery

The next steps were all a bit of a blur. I was scheduled in for an operation at the hospital the next week to have a D&C (Dilation & Curetage).

Having a miscarriage is mentally and physically painful. Having just accepted my pregnancy and started to make plans for the future, I now had to accept that baby was not going to be in my near future.

In the time leading up to my operation, my womb started to expel my baby on its own. Going to the toilet was frightening, watching chunks of jelly-like blot clots come out of me and get flushed away. Trying not to cry after each toilet visit was horrendous.I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t think anyone would understand (which was far worse for me than telling). I had only just moved to a foreign country 9 months previously and didn’t have many friends, let alone close friends who I felt I could trust.  On the morning of the operation, I was instructed to take a tablet two hours before coming to hospital. I took it and after about 10 minutes I was doubled up in pain. I didn’t realise it at the time but this tablet caused my cervix to start dilating. I felt so scared not knowing what was going on. The trip to the hospital was just awful because the pain seemed to be unbearable. Luckily on arrival, a nurse figured out what was going on and gave me some good pain killers. Coming out of the anaethestetic I felt hollow and numb. There was nothing right that anyone could say to me at that time. I didn’t want words of sympathy or positivity, nothing felt like it could do justice to my feelings. 

Life after miscarriage

I was blessed with being in one of the best hospitals during all of my miscarriage experiences at that time. The staff were very kind. One nurse came to me with a box full of trinkets so I could chose something to remember my lost baby by.  I had to grieve after my miscarriage. It was such a shock at the beginning, then to process it all, only to lose my baby, all within a matter of weeks. That was hard. It changed me.  It changed me because I realised I needed to make sure I live my best life. To go after my dreams. My dreams have always been to travel a lot…and I make sure I do. This miscarriage taught me to live my life to the full, my version of full. Excuses and fear should not get in the way. So many outsiders were saying we should spend our money on buying a house and settling down by the time we were 30. But you know what? This miscarriage got me to New York, Niagara Falls, Yosemite National Park, Mexico, Macchu Pichu, 5500m up a mountain, diving in the Caribbean and on the Great Barrier Reef, rowing through aligators on the Amazon river. I am thankful that this dear miscarriage, my first angel baby, spurred me on to follow my dreams.