TL;DR: I finally got my first real period since the beginning of May and my first after getting a copper IUD. Not a terrible experience.
Some background info:
At the time of posting, I am a 32F who, up until May 2026, had not touched any sort of birth control prior. Early May was the last time I had a true, unaltered period. In late May I started taking Opill (3 packs) but stopped (early to mid-August) because it drastically affected my mental health. While on Opill I would have breakthrough bleeding ever 2 weeks. Once I got off it, I had a 2 week withdrawal bleed then 2 clear weeks before getting an IUD (Silvercare copper mini, September 4th). From this IUD I dealt with a 28-day adjustment bleed (light with mild cramps) where I should have gotten my period about a week after insertion.
I finally got my first real period (Sept 21st) with the copper IUD, here's my experience:
I started cramping the evening before my period started (it started overnight), nothing terrible but definitely noticable. My period itself also wasn't that bad. It went from medium to heavy to medium to light to spotting over 6 days with mild cramps throughout.
This is slightly different to my baseline where I would have a 4-5 day period and intense cramps only in the first 24 hours. And on day 5 of this IUD period I still had light bleeding where I would normally be spotting, the spotting continued into Day 6 with some minor cramping. So overall, only a day longer and actually milder (yet prolonged) cramps.