The Bachelor Australia‘s Alex Nation has detailed her birth control nightmare after she was left bleeding for several months following an IUD insertion.

Alex — who first rose to fame on Richie Strahan‘s season of The Bachelor — said she had the intrauterine device inserted in October 2021, only six weeks after welcoming her second child, Maxwell.

However, the birth control unit broke through her uterus and migrated until it was “pressed against [her] bowel”.

alex nation son maxwell
The Bachelor Australia‘s Alex Nation has detailed her birth control nightmare after she was left bleeding for several months following an IUD insertion. Source: Instagram @alexandranation.

During a recent Instagram Q&A, Alex said she’d hoped the Mirena hormone-releasing IUD would serve as effective, long-term contraception.

And oh, how wrong she was.

“I instantly felt like something was wrong,” she recalled. “I had a lot of bleeding [and] I bled pretty much every day for seven months, so I would either spot every day, or I would get a period — which I shouldn’t — and my period were really heavy.”

The 30-year-old also listed crippling pain during sex and persistent bloating as symptoms of the insertion.

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Alex Nation Revealed Her Doctor Was Unable to Locate the IUD

When Alex visited her doctor to have the IUD removed, they were unable to locate the strings used to withdraw the device.

As such, the reality star had to undergo a procedural scan to find it.

“I had to have an X-Ray and it showed that my Mirena had perforated my uterus, migrated to my abdomen and was pressed against my bowel,” she said.

The mum of two also shared a snap of the X-Ray and yup, that’s the sound of us collectively wincing.

alex nation iud xray
Alex shared an X-Ray that showed the IUD had migrated towards her bowel. Source: Instagram @alexandranation.

While Alex’s IUD experience is a harrowing one, many women swear by the contraceptive device.

Women opt to use IUDs as they are predicted to be more than 99 per cent effective in preventing pregnancy. They can also last upwards of 10 years, depending on the material they’re made from.

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