i have paragard

i use paragard and have had ir since march of 05. i do have heavier,longer periods 7 or 8 days but not heavy on all these days--about 4. there is no weight gain involved-in fact i weighed 140 lbs. when i had it inserted and i weigh 110 lbs. now. you have cramps but i was used to them anyway and i have to say that the day i had it put in i cramped pretty bad. the only bad thing for me was the first period i had. i have never had kids but i know what a contraction feels like now! it lasted a day or so and was coming every 10 minutes in the evening only. but after that one period it never did it again. my body was probably not used to a foreign object in my uterus so it was just doing it's job and tried to expell it i guess. i do not have break through bleeding but sometimes i will start a week or less early. oh-and i can not wear tampons anymore. i can put them in but it starts to really bother me about 30 minutes later. but that's just me--everybody is different--they say you should be able to use tampons but i just can't. my husband says he can sometimes feel the string but it doesn't bother him. hope this helps!