Woman removes her own contraceptive coil at home due to waiting too long for appointment

A woman decided to skip waiting for a doctor's appointment to get her contraceptive IUD removed - she did it herself.

Ashley Hartig, 27, from Florida, wanted another baby and she was ready to start trying with her husband Derek.

They've been married for five years and share two children - son, Ryker, six and daughter, Presley, three.

The couple felt it was time to try for a third and Ashley didn't want to wait to book an appointment at her gynaecologist or at the family planning centre, so she took matters into her own hands - literally!

After emphasising that she is not encouraging others to remove their own, she shared the footage of her surprising her husband by putting her contraceptive IUD in a box as a gift.

The whole process made Ashley feel 'empowered' and said it came out 'easily'.

"It took a lot of courage but now I feel empowered and cleansed," she explains. "I was scrolling TikTok for hours trying to find other women who had done it as well.

"They were saying how easy it was, so one day when my husband was at work, I just pulled it out.

"I felt the strings and just pulled it straight out of my cervix.

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"It came out so easily and there was no blood either just a little scar tissue around it."

Ashley had two weeks to wait until her gynaecologist exam before the IUD could be removed, but she couldn't wait that long and instead found 'some inner strength' to get the job done herself.

Explaining that the four-year mark since she got the IUD was approaching, she explained: "I had an appointment scheduled for two weeks with my gynaecologist but that was just for an exam to check the IUD, and from there they would then book me in to take it out, so it would be around four weeks before it actually came out.

"It was on mind my every day about taking it out.

"It took me a few attempts, I stopped trying and then after a few hours I decided to try again and it came out.

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"It hurt a few times so I had left it and went to pick my son up from school, I called the planned parenthood trying to get an emergency appointment but they said they don't do them and that I needed to go to the hospital. I decided to try again a little later on.

"There was no way I was going to the hospital so I just started pulling with a bit more pressure and it literally slid out with no pain."

Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are small T-shaped plastic and copper devices that are put into the womb by a doctor or nurse to prevent pregnancy. An IUD usually works as soon as you put it in and between five to 10 years in total depending on the type.

The NHS suggests that IUDs should be taken out by a specially trained doctor or nurse. It’s possible to get pregnant as soon as it’s been removed.