Mirena IUD Migration Sending Women Migrating to the Courts

Bergen County, NJOf the various Mirena birth control side effects associated with the unique method of contraception, the migration of the device away from its original insertion point has to be amongst the worst adverse reactions faced by women choosing the Mirena as their preferred method of birth control.

Not only can it cause injury and intense pain through Mirena uterine perforation, but what of the effectiveness of its capacity to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, were it to migrate far afield from where it’s supposed to be?

Unlike more traditional forms of birth control, including conventional oral contraceptives and even dermal patches, Mirena is an intra-uterine device inserted by a doctor or qualified healthcare professional through the cervix and is intended to provide ongoing birth control for a period of years, before it becomes discharged and is retrieved.

The problem for many women - and related charges made by plaintiffs filing a Mirena birth control side effects lawsuit - is the spontaneous migration of the device. Why this happens is not particularly clear. Intense exercise? An active lifestyle? Energetic lovemaking?

Regardless, lawsuits associated with the set-it-and-forget-it device, an expensive form of birth control, are climbing. This, according to a statement published through the auspices of PRWeb Newswire (7/28/14). The latest count stands at 924 lawsuits according to the most recent caseload in the state of New Jersey, with 148 new cases coming in since July 8 alone.

The cases are consolidated as part of multidistrict litigation out of Bergen County Superior Court (In Re: Mirena Litigation: Case Number 297).

Yet another federal multidistrict litigation is percolating in US District Court Southern District of New York, with 612 cases all alleging similar Mirena side effects (In Re: Mirena IUD Products Liability Litigation, MDL Number 2434).

The Mirena IUD was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000 and has proven to be popular amongst busy women and career professionals who prefer the ease of Mirena birth control - which can last up to five years before it discharges of a synthetic progesterone - over remembering to take oral contraceptives or using dermal patches. Mirena was further granted a new indication by the FDA in 2009 for women who experience overly aggressive menstrual bleeding.

Many doctors are strong advocates of the Mirena device, and pronounce it to be safe and effective. However, hundreds of women have experienced the pain and frustration of Mirena uterine perforation and spontaneous migration. The result for many of these women has been scarring, adhesions and infertility. Emergency treatment and surgical intervention has been required by many women, many of whom have filed lawsuits after the Mirena side effects have caused them emotional and physical distress, loss of income from missing work, and loss of consortium with their partners.

It is interesting to note, according to the release, that the manufacturer was admonished by the FDA for overstating the Mirena IUD’s benefits while downplaying the risks in one of its promotions. That manufacturer is Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals - the same manufacturer taken to task by the FDA for overstating the benefits and minimizing the risks associated with the introduction of Yasmin and Yaz, third-generation oral contraceptives based on drospirenone, a synthetic which has been linked to an increased risk of blood clots over and above that of older, more traditional oral contraceptives.

The FDA said warnings for Yasmin and Yaz were understated, similar to what the FDA had to say in December 2009 about Bayer Mirena warnings.

Hundreds of plaintiffs in consolidated Mirena lawsuits concur with such admonishments. Judging from the growth of Mirena lawsuits over the few short weeks in July in the state of New Jersey, more Mirena plaintiffs will be migrating to their Mirena side effects attorneys, just as their Mirena IUDs may have migrated within their bodies, to a place where no IUD should go. Only difference is, the Mirena - properly inserted by a skilled healthcare professional - isn’t supposed to go anywhere…