A woman managed to remove the coil from her contraceptive IUD because she wanted another baby and didn’t want to wait for an appointment to have it removed.
Ashley Hartig, 27, of Florida, was ready to try for a third baby, but she didn’t want to wait for an appointment with her gynecologist or at the family planning center, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.
Feeling comfortable enough in her own body, the social media creator pulled it out herself and then gifted it to her beloved childhood husband, Derek, in a box, and the couple have kept it ever since.
Being married for five years and together for 13, with two children – a son, Ryker, six, and a daughter, Presley, three – the couple felt it was time to try for a third, even though they they had proposed having just the two. children.
While Ashley said removing the coil herself made her feel ’empowered’, she recommends leaving IUD removal to healthcare professionals.
Ashley Hartig, 27, of Florida, pictured with her husband Derek, couldn’t get an appointment to have her IUD removed at her gynecologist or family planning center, so she decided to have it removed herself.
Ashley explained: “It took a lot of courage, but now I feel empowered and clean. I’ve been scrolling through TikTok for hours trying to find other women who have done it too.
“They were saying how easy it was, so one day when my husband was at work, I took it out. I felt the threads and pulled it straight out of my cervix. It came off so easily and there was no blood either, just a little scar tissue around it.
‘I hadn’t talked to a doctor about taking it out myself, I had an appointment scheduled for two weeks with my gynecologist, but that was just for an exam to check the IUD, and from there I would then be checked in to take it. out, so it would be about four weeks before it actually came out.
“It was on my mind every day to take it out, I had also seen videos of other women doing it.”
The mother of 0 two, who is ready to try for a third child, showed her contraceptive coil to her three-year-old daughter Presley
Ashley said that removing the bob herself made her feel empowered. It is recommended that a health professional remove the IUD.
The mother of two boys would have had to wait four weeks for the contraceptive coil to be removed from her body and she did not want to wait.
Ashley put the IUD in a box and handed it over to her childhood sweetheart and husband Derek to mark the moment.
Derek was unaware that Ashley had removed the bobbin and was very surprised to find it in the box.
Derek, a father of two, was stunned when he saw his wife’s IUD in the box on a video filmed by Ashley.
The couple took selfies with Ashley’s IUD after she had it removed, with Derek being particularly fascinated by the contraceptive contraceptive.
Once she got it out, Ashley knew she wanted to show it to her husband, so she decided to gift it to him in a box. To her surprise, she couldn’t believe his wife had gone through with it.
She adds: ‘I gave it to him in a little box, telling him that I had brought him a present.
I couldn’t believe I pulled it myself. He didn’t expect it at all, the first thing he asked me was if I’m okay.
‘He kept saying he just didn’t expect it.
My kids kept asking me what I had given Derek, so I had to explain that it was keeping me from having babies.
“I don’t know if it’s a placebo, but I feel like I can move better and I feel better.”
“I had to find some inner strength to do it, even though I had never felt the ropes before. I just knew that I needed to get a good grip on it.
It took me a few tries, I stopped trying and after a few hours I decided to try again and it came out.
It hurt a few times so I put it down and went to pick up my son from school, called Planned Parenthood trying to get an emergency appointment but was told they don’t do them and I had to go to the hospital. . I decided to try again a bit later.
“There was no way he was going to the hospital, so I started pulling with a little more pressure and he literally glided on with no pain.”
Coils, also known as copper coils or IUDs, are birth control devices that are up to 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy when inserted correctly.
They need to be inserted and removed by a medical professional, but women around the world who struggle to make appointments with their doctor or gynecologist resort to doing it themselves, posting “IUD removal” videos online.
Others have reported being denied removal unless they agree to start another form of contraception and have therefore taken matters into their own hands.
But doctors warn that a DIY extraction can lead to pain, bleeding, or more scaling, and even risk prolapse of the uterus.
Dr. Anar Yukhayev, a New York-based OB/GYN, told NBC it’s best to have a doctor perform the procedure, as they have the right tools.
He said that in some situations, they may even need to use some force.
He added: ‘The thing is, you have to know exactly how much force to use.
‘If you’re using too much force, that could mean something is wrong, like the IUD might be stuck.
“When you throw it out, you can lodge it in a different part of the uterus and make embedding the IUD even worse.
“That’s one of the issues where I can think about why it’s not a good idea, or it’s risky, really dangerous.”
Dr. Gloria Bachmann, OB/GYN, director of the Institute for Women’s Health at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said TODAY that it’s best to remove coils in a “controlled environment” as doctors are better equipped to deal with any problems that may arise.
He added: ‘When we take it out in the office, it all visualizes like you’re doing it more or less blindly (at home).
“If it’s embedded in the muscular layer of the uterus, which can happen, it can cause a lot more bleeding, a lot more pain, and it can actually cause the uterus to sag, which is not something you want.”
When it comes to doctors who refuse to remove the coils, Dr. Yukhayev said it’s important to find a solution that works for the patient.
He added: “I look at my job as a doctor to tell the patient what I think is going on, what are the risks and benefits, what are the options and so that together we can make a decision that we both feel comfortable with.”
‘Now, I can’t imagine myself being in a position where a patient really wants to remove the IUD and I tell them, ‘no.’
“If you find yourself with an OB-GYN that goes against what you want, then it’s probably time to look for a different doctor.”
