WARNING: Mirena Can Ruin a Young Woman’s Life

Seattle, WASylvia regrets advising her daughter Tracy to use a Mirena IUD as a method of birth control. “Tracy is my only child and I might not have any grandchildren because of Mirena,” she says, crying.

“I guess my mother and my doctor didn’t know anything about Mirena side effects when I had it inserted,” says Tracy. “For starters, I was too young to have it and this device has caused a whole bunch of problems.”

For starters, Mirena is recommended for women who have had at least one child. Why? Bayer, the manufacturer, says it is because most of the research on Mirena for FDA approval was conducted on women who had at least one child. Could that be the only reason?

Many young women like Tracy, who had the Mirena implanted in their late teens, are now facing infertility problems due to any number of Mirena side effects, from pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) to Mirena uterine perforation.

“I had PID in 2010 and spent eight days in hospital because the Mirena had become embedded in my uterine wall,” says Tracy. “They had to dig and scrape my uterus to get it out and it was one of the most painful things I have ever endured. Now my ovaries have cysts that burst and my uterus and fallopian tubes are scarred to the point that I may never be able to have children. I am so depressed. I haven’t been able to work for two months and sometimes I don’t even want to get out of bed. “

Carol, age 24, has suffered miscarriages that she believes were caused by Mirena. “Several doctors and ultrasound techs have made it clear to me that the Mirena altered my ability to have children, at least for a while (it has been 6 months since I had the device removed).”

Lastly, Mary, age 26, says that soon after she had the Mirena implanted she developed severe abdominal pains and very heavy bleeding. “I was then informed that I had pelvic inflammatory disease,” Mary says. “I had to have a partial hysterectomy. This led to my wedding being called off and my family falling apart. It seemed as if I was no longer the person I once was. I was depressed due to the problems resulting from the IUD, and the fact that I could no longer have children. This may sound crazy, but in my own research, I have found women that suffered from all of the problems in which I have described. The IUD took so much away from me, and to this day I’m still trying to cope.”

Mary doesn’t sound the least bit crazy. There have been more than 45,000 adverse events reported, including device expulsion, device dislocation and vaginal hemorrhage, according to the FDA.

Mirena lawsuits have been filed in New Jersey, and Bayer requested that the New Jersey Supreme Court have the cases consolidated. In January 2013, that request was denied. Many federal lawsuits filed against Bayer alleging that Mirena can perforate the uterus and migrate in the body were consolidated in multidistrict litigation in the Southern District of New York (In Re: Mirena IUD Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 2434, JPMDL).