I will never forget the day I sat in the Dr’s office and saw the Essure Poster taped to a door. I so clearly remember the poster stating permanent, safe, and worry free- if only I would have know exactly how inaccurate that was… I never even heard of it before but that poster was so intriguing and so interesting to me. So naturally I asked my Dr about it. Obviously he was pro Essure (the reason why I will learn at a much later visit) because he did quite the job describing how great it is, how effective it is, and how safe it is. That day I ‘learned’ that Essure is a permanent form of sterilization that did not require surgery, it is labeled as over 99% effective and worry free, as well as hormone free. I’m thinking perfect! Sign me up! I have a 5 year old daughter, her father and I have been together for 7 years. The pregnancy took a big toll on me and my body (mainly my teeth) because I am allergic to many foods, dairy being one of them, and I did not get all the nutrients and vitamins I needed despite being told my prenatals would have me covered. She was born perfect and healthy I was just so positive I never wanted to go through a pregnancy again, knowing my body and teeth most likely could not handle another pregnancy and having an only child was okay with both of us! So at that visit we decided to move forward with the Essure Procedure. I was given the depo shot on that visit to cover the 3 month time period needed with Essure. Of course that day I was NOT told about any effects the depo could possibly have on me or how it is labeled with a box warning. Leaving the office that day I was so excited, the implanting day was scheduled about 2/3 weeks later and I really couldn’t have been more thrilled. Now I didn’t just totally take my Dr’s word on Essure, I did do some research on my own. I remember going on the Essure site and reading great things and great stories. It was around September of 2015 when I learned about the procedure and started my research. Unfortunately my research wasn’t enough, or maybe just a little too soon since the FDA meeting regarding Essure was at the end of September and after that it seems more and more articles came out. So on October 8th, 2015 I was put to sleep and implanted with these coils. I have been put to sleep twice prior to this and never had any issures, but waking up from my procedure was a nightmare. My body was immobile, the nursing staff had to help me get into the recovering chair, I was so sick and nauseous too. Never did I experience any of that being to sleep. I remember vommitting over and over again, feeling so weak and shaky. I remember watching other patients come into the recovery room and leave as I had to stay there over 2 hours longer than anyone else. At that time I assumed it was all related to being put to sleep, now I wonder what exactly happened during the procedure and maybe that awful wake up process wasn’t due to being put to sleep but maybe something happened or went wrong.
A little over a month later I have not stopped bleeding since that implanting day so I call the drs office. He wanted to see me and the appointment was set up for a couple days later. My luck the day before the appointment the bleeding turned to random and light spotting and the day of the appointment I seriously did not bleed once. And I promise I bled every day all day up until that point. Way to make an ass out of me Essure! I go to the appointment anyway, go through the vital checks and the questions and then he decides to do an internal ultrasound. Dr tells me everything looks great and coils are where they are supposed to be and the bleeding is just old blood running its course through me. He gave me ‘reassurance’ that everything is okay. The very next day I start bleeding again, like come on, seriously?! But the dr told me everything was fine, so I believed him and just continued bleeding daily. Another month of continuous bleeding goes by so I pick up the phone and yet again call into the office who wants to see me again. The day of this appointment I was bleeding and so hopeful I would get some answers, only I was never seen. 2 days before the implanting procedure I lost my job. I had health insurance and it was already taken out of my check for part of October so I assumed being fired would have no effect. A couple weeks after the procedure I learned the employer canceled my insurance effective the day of termination and reimbursed me what I had paid so instead of letting the insurance go for as long as I paid for they cut it immediately and naturally the procedure payment was denied. So now on top of being unemployed I have this crazy ass bill from good ol Essure. That day I went in for the 2nd check up I was pulled back to speak to their insurance/billing person who pretty much harassed me and interrogated me about this massive bill I owe them. After that fun was over with I was sent back out to the waiting room to wait for the dr. Then I was called up to the check in window where they tell me in order to see me I need to put a payment towards the visit since I didn’t have insurance. I check my online banking I really can’t afford to give them that payment but I really felt I needed to be seen so okay I will pay the portion you want. I give them the debit card and the woman walks away, only to walk right back seconds later asking me if the man whose name is on the card is present with me. I said no he isn’t. Now I have used this very same debit card with my boyfriends name on it at this same office twice previously without him being there. For some reason that day they refused to take the card. I tried calling him, he was sleeping and never heard is phone. The office tells me unless I have another form of payment or I can get ahold of them they can not take my payment. There are other people in the waiting room and after already being pulled back just to be interrogated and now this hassel over a stupid payment I am beyond embarassed and upset. Clearly they had no interest in me or my issues anyway so I left the office in tears and never being seen. I decided to wait until January 2016 to go to a new dr since my boyfriend was putting me on his insurance for the 2016 year.
So in January I call a new office, Penn State Obstetrics, and start this process all over again because I STILL have not stopped bleeding. I also needed to have the HSG test done to know if I was permanently blocked. My first appointment with a new dr was in Febuary. She did not seem to believe my bleeding was due to Essure but to the depo shot. First she wanted me to get the HSG procedure done because during this they could see if I had any cysts or polyps that could cause the bleeding. If all came back clear she wanted to put me on another form of birth control which I was not interested in at all. Now on top of the constant bleeding I was starting to feel pain in my pelvic and abdominal area. Good thing the HSG was scheduled for March 10, 2016. About 2 days prior to that my mom seen something on the news regarding Essure and mentioned it to me. That is when everything came crashing down on me. I learned it all, the FDA meetings regarding the safety and effectiveness of it, Mr Fitzpatricks bill the E Free Act, the amazing support site Essure Problems on facebook and all the crazy downfalls and effects of these tiny little coils. (defintely did not help my nerves for the HSG procedure) I had it done, and I will never forget looking over at the screen and knowing something wasn’t right. One side seemed to look okay to me, but the other side was what concerned me. I seen 2 coils, none of which seemed to be in the correct place because neither was trailing into my uterus. In fact one of them was in a complete circle. Procedure is done with, they tell me for some reason I was implanted with 3 coils but my tubes are occluded. I was given an identification card when I was implanted and there were 2 lot numbers on the card. All that time I thought one number was for the left and the other was for the right. How wrong I was….. I learned the day of my HSG that the Essure lot number represents the kit they used and in each kit there is 2 coils, which means that my implanting dr used 2 kits on me. I was never told and I have no idea why an extra coil was implanted in me. Especially when the insertion manual for physcians specifically says not to insert more than one coil in a tube. Which brings me back to wondering what happened that day during the procedure and i was put to sleep? Why do I have 3 coils? Wondering if whatever happened had to do with my rough wake up… Guess I will never know because the records the implanting dr had/used were completely useless and uninforming. I returned to the dr who ordered the HSG test for the follow up in April. She tells me she saw nothing that would be a problem to cause bleeding and asked if I was shown the pictures of the HSG which I had. She said both right devices migrated and is close to perforating my tube if it hasn’t already and that is the explanation for the pain I was having. She recommended taking just that tube. The way I am thinking is if you are going to take one you are going to take both. Since I found the Essure Problems facebook site they have opened my eyes to so much and have given me so much information so I was familiar with how the coils should and should not be removed. When I asked my dr how she planned on removing the left device from my uterus she said she was going to pull it out. (BIG NO NO) When I told her I was not okay with this her response was ‘well how else am I going to get it out?’ You can not pull on the devices too big of a possibility that the coils will break and can also leave the PET fibers behing. I am already scared to death enough, 23 years old and we are discussing the removal of my fallopian tubes! I left her office that day very scared, nervous, and upset. I am too young for this to not go right and chance more complications and more surgeries. I asked in my state support group about drs and found that another dr in the very same office is highly recommended and has previous experience removing them. So here we go dr number 3! I will also add the lady was not too friendly and did not seem interested in what I had to say. The new dr who is highly recommeneded was everything I hoped for. Kind and understanding, he listened to what I had to say and all of my concerns. I asked him how he wanted to remove the left device from my uterus and he went with cutting both corners of uterus. I was content with that answer so here we are moving forward with a bilateral salpingectomy with uterus resection at 23 years old. To me, this is like the end of the world. I never signed up to lose organs due to this device. I also never signed up for the crazy side effects that I have dealt with and never even got a chance to bring to the drs attention strictly because the HSG showed the devices migrated. So far writing this right now I have had Essure for 8 months and have experienced the following:
Persistent and irregular bleeding, pelvic pain, abdominal pain, weight gain, brain fog, pain in my left hip, terrible headaches on my right side, mood swings, depression, anxiety, tooth loss, stuttering, eczema, hair loss, changes in bowel movements, muscle spasms, fluttering/movements in abdominal area, extreme irritation, joints popping, fatigue, and device migration. All of this is new to me in the past 8 months having essure. I did not sign up for any of this, I did not expect any of this. Now at 23 years old and in a little less than a month away I will be losing my fallopian tubes and corners of my uterus, all thanks to Essure. All I wanted was to never have children again…..