An increasing number of plaintiffs are filing Essure lawsuits against the makers of the permanent contraceptive device alleging severe adverse side effects including organ perforation, pelvic pain, excessive bleeding, and ectopic pregnancy.

Plaintiffs Alecia M., Marta B., and Viridiana M., among other plaintiffs, filed the recent Essure lawsuit against Bayer Corp. in Missouri federal court, demanding jury trial.

According to the Essure lawsuit, Alecia is a 38-year-old woman who resides in St. Louis. She says that she underwent an Essure procedure on April 15, 2015 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

After the procedure, she says that she returned to a hospital on Feb. 3, 2016 complaining of complications including heavier menstrual periods, a possible urinary tract infection, and nausea/vomiting. During her menstrual cycle, she says that she was concerned about the amount of blood she lost because she was using eight menstrual pads per day.

According to the lawsuit, she also says that she was suffering from muscle weakness, back pain, and joint pain. She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and prescribed medication to help with muscle spasms.

Adverse effects she continues to suffer from include “menopetrorrhagia, dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, worsened back pain, fibromyalgia, joint pain, rashes, worsening hair loss, and fatigue caused by the implantation of the Essure device,” the lawsuit states.

Marta is a forty-three-year-old woman residing in Riverside County, Calif. She says that she underwent an Essure procedure on Dec. 10, 2014 at Mommy & Me Medical Group. She says that it was her understanding that the Essure implantation was effective and “safer than a bilateral tubal ligation.”

However, she began to similarly suffer from menorrhagia, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, fatigue, pelvic pain, and dysmenorrhea. Other complaints also included abdominal pain and headaches.

On March 30, 3016, she says that she started to experience heavy menses with clotting, and was diagnosed with abnormal uterine bleeding, possible pelvic congestion syndrome, and uterine fibroid.

Plaintiff Garcia M., a twenty-nine-year old woman residing in Brawley, Calif., was implanted with the Essure device on March 26, 2013 at Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District. According to the lawsuit, however, she began suffering pelvic pain, leg pain, hair loss, fatigue, rashes, dysmenorrhea, and menometorrhagia. On May 16, 2015, she was admitted into the emergency room for complaints of severe abdominal pain.

It was on June 27, 2017 that she complained from painful and heavy periods and stated that her period began on May 7, 2017 and did not end until June 15, 2017, according to the Essure lawsuit. She was prescribed “hormonal methods of birth control to control the bleeding.”

Essure

Essure, manufactured by Bayer Healthcare, was thought to be a breakthrough contraceptive device for women. However, it has led women to suffer from severe adverse effects, including more than 4,500 adverse event reports filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Although approved by the FDA through the agency’s fast track approval system in 2002, allegations state that the device was approved too quickly without completing sufficient and adequate studies. Allegations also include that the device’s approval was based on questionable studies.

The Essure Lawsuit is Case No. 4:18-cv-00262-CDP, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.