Nearly 750,000 women have opted for Essure birth control, a permanent contraceptive choice from Bayer that claims to offer 99% pregnancy protection with no down time.

And that would be great if the story stopped there.

Unfortunately, for thousands of women, Essure has allegedly brought horrible pain, fatigue, headaches, painful intercourse and excessive menstrual bleeding, to name just a few Essure side effects.

What Is Essure Birth Control?

Essure Permanent Birth Control System works on a rather simple premise. Two small metal and fiber coils are inserted into the fallopian tubes, reached through the vagina. Over the course of three months, scar tissue grows around the inserts and blocks the fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy.

Essure birth control coils consist of a blend of nickel and stainless steel, materials often used in stents and other medical implants.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 10 and 20% of the population is allergic to nickel.

While the FDA approved Essure birth control for the public in 2002, the regulating agency did not insist on a black box warning of Essure’s nickel content until 2011.

Symptoms of an allergic reaction after implantation can include, itching, rashes, and in some cases, painful inflammation throughout the body.

Essure coils are covered by tiny Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) fibers that induce the scarring that results in pregnancy prevention. Sometimes microscopic fibers detach from the coils and migrate to other parts of the body. The whole point of the PET fibers is to cause inflammation and scarring.

What Are Essure Problems?

How can such a simple, tiny device cause life-changing problems? For starters, proper placement of the Essure coils into the fallopian tubes is necessary.

Each Essure birth control coil is designed to be screwed into the fallopian tube from inside the uterus, with just a bit of the tube left dangling into the uterus. An instrument then pushes the coil in a bit further, and a fast “tug” allegedly sets the coil so that it won’t migrate.

According to the National Institutes of Health, the successful placement rate of Essure birth control was 84% to 98% in various studies.

Perforation of the fallopian tube was a possibility if the coils were inserted incorrectly. Even more frightening, though, are the PET fibers meant to spur scar tissue growth as part of the Essure birth control system.

PET fibers are plasticizers used in a variety of commercial products. Plasticizers work well when used as stain or water repellants on certain materials, but PET fibers will break down when exposed to heat and over time.

As PET fibers degrade, they release a toxin called acetaldehyde, which is a byproduct in the metabolism of alcohol and the main cause of liver damage in alcoholics. Acetaldehyde also is a cancer-causing by-product of wood smoke and other heat-induced reactions.

Essure birth control’s PET fibers can break down and release antimony, a semi-metallic chemical element that is toxic when applied topically. Over time, leaching antimony can cause a variety of problems from heart issues to cell death similar to arsenic poisoning.

Both plasticizer compounds have been proven to seep into drinking water from plastic bottles exposed to temperatures above 65 degrees.

The thought of these chemicals resting inside the fallopian tubes – enveloping the Essure birth control coils where the temperature is 98 degrees – is sobering.

Help for Essure Birth Control Sufferers

If you or someone you know is struggling with Essure side effects, you are not alone. Thousands of women trusted Essure birth control to be their solution as a safe and permanent form of birth control.

If you are suffering, you could benefit from a class action lawsuit to compensate you for pain and suffering, hospitalizations, medications and surgeries that you have endured as a result of Essure problems.