Tracy Colman  |  April 3, 2019

Category: Legal News

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Essure coils entered the market in 2002, but their manufacturer Bayer announced last summer that the permanent birth control device would no longer be available after Dec. 31, 2018.

According to the Washington Post, Bayer made a decision based solely upon how Essure was faring in the marketplace and not upon its controversial status.

Essure coils, as indicated by Bayer in the article, went down in popularity. While they were once heralded as an innovative alternative to tubal ligation which required the use of general anesthesia and the assumption of associated risks, Essure coils have been linked to thousands of reports of painful and damaging complications.

Nevertheless, Bayer claims that the half-million American women who have had the device implanted can rely on its safety and effectiveness of preventing pregnancy.

What are Essure Coils?

Essure coils
came in pairs and were made from an alloy of nickel and titanium. Each of the coils was designed to be placed inside the Fallopian tubes located on either side of a woman’s uterus via the vagina and cervix.

The theory behind the device was that the recipient’s body would trigger an immune response to the foreign object once they were placed in each tube and generate scar tissue which would eventually block fertilization. The process was supposed to take approximately three months and required verification from a trained physician.

The Controversy

According to Consumer Reports, women that experienced complications from Essure were a fraction of the total number of recipients. Just three to four percent of recipients have reported problems, but those problems have been life-altering, often ignored by the professional medical community, and eventually required radical surgeries such as hysterectomies to reverse.

Being told that certain symptoms such as severe pain, brain fog, unexplained weight gain, and migraines were in their imagination, women experiencing problems with this method of permanent birth control eventually found each other on a Facebook page named “Essure Problems.”

Banding together, their voices purportedly had more power and pushed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to do something about the allegedly errant device.

While overall support for Essure from the FDA and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists remained steady, the drug and medical device oversight agency required that a black box warning be placed on the packaging. It also assisted Bayer in the creation of a checklist of issues to discuss between doctor and patient when determining whether the method was the correct choice for an individual woman—given certain risks.

Autoimmune Complications

While the complications reported have been diverse, latent autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and celiac disease are problematic preexisting conditions. These conditions cause the body to overreact and attack healthy cells in response to what is seen as foreign. In the case of this birth control method, some women have experienced severe pain because their autoimmune disease triggered severe inflammation where the coils were placed.

In general, Essure lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.

Do YOU have a legal claim? Fill out the form on this page now for a free, immediate, and confidential case evaluation. The attorneys who work with Top Class Actions will contact you if you qualify to let you know if an individual lawsuit or class action lawsuit is best for you. Hurry — statutes of limitations may apply.

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Join a Free Essure Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you or a loved one were injured by Essure birth control complications, you may have a legal claim. See if you qualify to pursue compensation and join a free Essure class action lawsuit investigation by submitting your information for a free case evaluation.

An attorney will contact you if you qualify to discuss the details of your potential case.

PLEASE NOTE: If you want to participate in this investigation, it is imperative that you reply to the law firm if they call or email you. Failing to do so may result in you not getting signed up as a client or getting you dropped as a client.

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Please note: Top Class Actions is not a settlement administrator or law firm. Top Class Actions is a legal news source that reports on class action lawsuits, class action settlements, drug injury lawsuits and product liability lawsuits. Top Class Actions does not process claims and we cannot advise you on the status of any class action settlement claim. You must contact the settlement administrator or your attorney for any updates regarding your claim status, claim form or questions about when payments are expected to be mailed out.