So I'm thinking about getting either the Paraguard or the Mirena. I'd rather get the Paraguard because I don't like the feeling of birth control hormones in my body, but it has a little bit of copper in it right? I know that when I wear jewelry with too much copper in it my skin turns kind of green- does this mean I'm allergic to copper or just have a skin sensitivity? And does that mean I can't use Paraguard? What do you think?

I think that's a question for your dr. I would think that if it were an allergy you would have a skin rash or another symptom in addition to the skin discoloration. I have a gold allergy and I get a horrible rash when my skin comes in contact with it. If in doubt tho, you can always get allergy tested before the insertion.

My friend used the paraguard IUD and she had green on her underwear alot but no irritation from it. She did not have it long though because she did not like the idea of having green underwear all the time.

Normally an allergic reaction is in the form of a rash or hives. If you didn't have either of those then most likely it's just from your sweat and the copper reacting together.

That being said, I have the Paragard and I love it. I like that I don't have to worry about taking a pill every day. I just check the string once a month. It's just as effective as sterilization yet you can get it taken out when ever you wanna start TTC or if you wanna switch to a different bc.

I have it listed in the helpful websites sticky if you want more info.

Angie

That's not necessarily true about an allergic reaction to metal. An allergic reaction to metal can manifest itself in just the way described. It's the exact same way my skin reacts if I wear nickel - which I am highly allergic to - or anything containing it, including 10K white gold.

At one time, I spoke to a nurse from the Paragard company who informed me that a copper allergy could be checked by putting copper - say, a penny or something else made of copper - onto skin for a while and that if the skin turns colour, it can be assumed that there is an allergy.

I would strongly recommend that the original poster talk to a doctor.