A Virginia husband and wife recently filed a lawsuit against Bayer Healthcare, alleging that the company’s popular Essure birth control implants caused the woman serious complications.

The plaintiff, Jennifer D., alleges that she was implanted with Essure birth control implants in 2010. However, in the aftermath of implantation with the device, Jennifer has suffered from severe and permanent injuries, her lawsuit claims. Jennifer says these injuries have caused physical pain and suffering, as well as emotional distress.

Jennifer alleges in her lawsuit that Essure birth control implants are defective and that patients like her are not adequately warned of the complications associated with the devices. Instead, Bayer actively worked to conceal these risks, Jennifer alleges, placing patients at serious risk in order to bring in profit.

Jennifer filed her lawsuit on multiple counts, including negligence, failure to warn, and several others. Jennifer’s husband Bryan also filed on one count of loss of consortium.

Basics of Essure Birth Control Implants

Essure birth control implants
are manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Bayer Healthcare. These implants were created to be a new form of permanent birth control, offering people a different option than surgical tubal ligation. In fact, Essure implantation is touted as being a simple procedure, done in a doctor’s office with no invasive surgery involved.

The device, too, is simple: it is made up of two metal coils and is lined with fabric. These coils are then placed into a person’s fallopian tubes. For two to three months, the coils are allowed to expand and grow into the tissue surrounding them, while the tissue itself grows in around the coils over time. Eventually, this is meant to the fallopian tubes completely and prevent pregnancy.

Since Essure’s approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002, it has become widely used. So far, around 750,000 women have been implanted with Essure birth control implants.

For a long time, Bayer Healthcare has marketed its Essure birth control implants as safer than other options available, lawsuits claim. But a growing number of those implanted with these devices allege that they have experienced serious complications after implantation.

Filing a Lawsuit Over Essure Birth Control Implants

So far, thousands of people have turned to litigation as a result of a number of Essure complications. Lawsuits allege that Bayer had a duty to warn about the risks associated with their device, but failed to do so. Side effects cited in these lawsuits include device failure, migration, and fracture; organ perforation; ectopic pregnancy; and more.

Some of these more serious complications can require removal surgery to alleviate symptoms. Of course, device removal surgery brings about its own host of problems: further risk, as well as additional medical expenses. Some Essure complications, like device fracture or migration, can make removal surgery that much more delicate.

If you or a loved one has experienced these or other side effects of Essure birth control implants, you may be able to join the growing pile of litigation against Bayer. While filing a lawsuit cannot take away the effects of Essure complications, it can help to provide compensation for medical expenses and lost wages.

The Essure Birth Control Implants Lawsuit is Case No. 2:18-cv-04251-JP, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.