“Bayer instructed hospitals to stop using the Essure system, citing “commercial reasons.””
More disturbing news about the birth control implant, Essure, hit this press again this week, this time in Britain. According to the Daily Mail, one of Britain's largest newspapers, thousands of British women were left in crippling pain as a result of Essure implants having disintegrated inside them after surgical implantation.
The Rise and Fall of Essure Birth Control Implants
For women in the US who have formed part of the thousands of lawsuit over Essure and against its manufacturer, Bayer, this is not exactly news. Last summer, Bayer instructed hospitals to stop using the Essure system. Rather than citing problems with the integrity of the device, however, Bayer insisted that it was withdrawing the highly popular product strictly for "commercial reasons."
Essure owes its popularity to the fact that it is form of sterilization which does not involve surgery, an option that has attracted many women in the US and abroad to the new technology. The procedure for Essure, a tiny spider-like device, involves insertion into the recipient's Fallopian tubes. The arms of the device prevent eggs from reaching the womb. In a procedure that takes as little as ten minutes, Essure can be inserted into the vagina and on into the tubes.
Essure Devices May Migrate or Disintegrate, Causing Severe Medical Problems
But the pain from a defective device can be much, much more lasting.
In some women, Essure devices have migrated throughout their bodies, or disintegrated into fragments; or both. When an Essure implant disintegrates it breaks into tiny 1-2mm fragments made from nickel titanium alloy and Polyethelene Terephthalate (PET) plastic fibers. The presence of these materials where they do not belong can cause debilitating allergic reactions or cut into tissue or cause nerve damage.
Lawsuits Against Essure manufacturer, Bayer
Thousands of women who have allegedly been victims of defective Essure devices have filed lawsuits against Essure's manufacturer, Bayer. While the court battle is just getting started, women who have suffered tremendously from pain due allegedly to the implants continue to fight for their legal rights in mass litigation.
