“When we decided to try for another child, my doctor had difficulties finding the Mirena. It was embedded in my right fallopian tube and it was very painful," says Heather. “He didn’t give me any advice or instructions on what to do or what not to do, and at that time I had no idea about Mirena side effects or any Mirena warnings.”Shortly after that visit, the twenty-eight-year-old changed gynecologists. About two months later Heather was pregnant and healthy, but miscarried at eight weeks. She had never experienced a miscarriage.
“I asked my new gynecologist how this could have happened and he said I should have waited 6-8 months after the Mirena IUD was removed to try to conceive, so your body can heal and get hormones back to the right levels. Even if I kept the pregnancy I would have miscarried before 12 weeks: he told me that my uterus wasn’t strong enough to hold the child.”
I had to get a D&C. I was heartbroken, depressed, I had all sorts of emotions. We decided to wait six months before trying again.”
Heather was pregnant again and her doctor diligently kept her on track with blood work and hormone level checks. She had a sonogram and discovered the baby was in her fallopian tube - an ectopic pregnancy. “The sonogram technician gave her condolences and my gynecologist came in,” Heather says, crying. “There was nothing that anyone could do. I could see that she too was upset because an ectopic pregnancy is life-threatening for me and the baby couldn’t be saved...”
Heather was admitted to the hospital and had her tube and ovary removed - the tube on the side where the Mirena had been embedded. Her other tube was fine.
“At this point I don’t know if I want to go through this again. If I would have known this was possible, I would never have had the Mirena,” says Heather.
“How could the drugmaker say this is safe and convenient? They should warn that it can also kill unborn babies.”
I am so thankful I have my son. I don’t know if this has affected my fertility; I don’t know if I can have any more kids. But I do know that this Mirena should be taken off the market; it is like they don’t care. I am going to register a complaint with the FDA's adverse events. It isn’t fair that so many women are suffering and getting away with it. With all these complaints, they should have stacks of Mirena lawsuits against them.”
READ MORE MIRENA IUD LEGAL NEWS
Mirena lawsuit update
More than 1,000 Mirena federal lawsuits dating back to April 2013 are progressing, and Judge Cathy Seibel of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York has chosen five cases that will comprise a second round of bellwether trials to be heard as part of the ongoing multidistrict litigation (MDL). A final schedule of trial dates should be announced this month.
Over 1,100 cases had been transferred into the federal MDL by June, with another 2,000 pending in a multicounty litigation in New Jersey’s Bergen County Superior Court.