J.L.
Hello J.. I also have the Mirena IUD. At first I would try and check and wonder if it was in place because I couldn't find the strings. The literature clearly states that you should check it monthly to make sure it's in place. However after worrying about it and then going into my doctor and telling him about it he told me that I probably wouldn't be able to find the very fine silky strings inside my vagina. He told me that it would be more likely that I would feel that it had shifted (which is very unlikely by the way) inside my uterus than it would be for me to notice that the strings weren't in place. I don't worry about not having a starting place. I still get monthly dizzyness, tender breasts and headaches. I've just started thinking that there is a definite pattern so I am going to start recording them. The chance of you getting pregnant while being on numerous forms of birth control is extremely slight. I'm not worried about it at all and I just have Mirena. You will hear horror stories about people that have had babies unexpectedly while on an IUD, but a Mirena IUD is not only the IUD but also a contraceptive (or hormones) and most of the stories that I hear are generally just the copper IUDs.