Young women – ages 14 to 19 – are at greater risk of expelling IUDs (intrauterine devices) than older women, according to the results of a recent study published in the October issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Over a three-year period, the study found that one in 10 women had an IUD expulsion, in which the birth control device was pushed out of the uterus into the vagina. Teenagers using IUDs were more than twice as likely to have this happen when using the Mirena IUD and more than three times as likely when using a ParaGard IUD. Researchers in the study looked at data on 5,403 women.

IUDs began growing in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, when a hormonal version was invented. Bayer AG, which manufactures the Mirena, a hormonal IUD that releases a synthetic progestin called leveonorgestrel into the bloodstream, has been named as a defendant in numerous lawsuits alleging that the company failed to adequately warn users that the device could pierce the uterus and migrate to other parts of the body. ParaGard, also named in many lawsuits, is the only copper intrauterine device approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the United States.

An IUD is a tiny T-shaped device inserted into the uterus by a doctor. An IUD prevents an egg from fertilizing by damaging or killing the sperm. According to a June report published by the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank on sexual and reproductive health, IUDs accounted for 3.5 percent of women aged 15 to 44 using birth control in 2010.

In addition to expulsion, IUD users risk the device puncturing their uterus, something that could occur during insertion.

The FDA approved the Mirena IUD in December 2000 as a long-term contraceptive device. More than 15 million women worldwide use the Mirena for birth control.

Plaintiffs in hundreds of the cases filed against Mirena manufacturer Bayer accuse the company of failing to change its packaging despite numerous reports of “embedment of and perforation through the uterine lining and/or migration of the IUD through the uterine lining after the period of insertion.”

The FDA issued a warning about the device but Bayer has continued to manufacture, advertise, and sell the Mirena IUD.

Side effects reported by women using the Mirena IUD include weight gain, acne, breast pain or tenderness, perforation, migration, ectopic or intrauterine pregnancy, cancer, adhesions, cysts, fetal Injury, premature menopause and even death.

The ParaGard IUD has been sold in the United States since 1988. When it first came on the market, the product label contained a section indicating the device was recommended for women who had given birth to at least one child. In 2005, the FDA approved a new product label that removed any information suggesting that IUD candidates be limited to those having one or more children.

A Florida woman filed a lawsuit against ParaGard manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2013 alleging that the IUD migrated out of her uterus and embedded in her colon, resulting in severe complications.