Hi my name is Barbara,
My story is very similar to the rest of yours. I had the essure procedure done about 2 years ago. A friend of mine had the procedure and said she recommended it, her friend had it done as well and recommended it too. And my Ob Gyn highly recomended it. I thought this is the answer. I am now 48 yrs old and looking for birth control. I smoke and am 20 pounds over weight. I have limited birth control options. This, I thought was the answer. Well I felt different instantly. I spoke to my friends, they were not having any issues. It must be me. My periods got much heavier and cramps were AWEFUL! I was bleeding for 2 weeks at a time, heavy flow with clots that were bigger than golf balls. My tubes were hurting all the time. I figured at first it was because I had a medical procedure;I had never had a major surgery before. My dr. said this can be typical, not to worry. After a few months my hair starting to fall out and became extremely curly, almost like chemo therapy patient’s hair. I had to cut over 8 inches off the back of my hair because is had started braking off, it looked fried. I started developing sores on my head that oozed and hurt. I changed shampoos, curling irons, hair dryers everything trying to figure out what was wrong. Then the pain started in my hips and legs. Eventually I felt as if I had a mix of the flu like symptoms and rheumatoid arthritis thruout my body. It was terrible. The pain and fatigue was becoming unbearable. I was watching the news one night and saw the broadcast on the essure procdeure about hurting and killing women. I had 12 of the symptoms that they were showing; I had sores all over my head and vaginal areas, which I believe was my nickle allergy.I had asked the doctor what are the coils made from: surgical steel. I thought that’s ok, I am allergic to nickle, not realizing that surgical steel is a compound metal made with nickle. My hair loss, pain in my hips and right leg, excessive & extensive bleeding, cramps, fatigue, body aches, mood swings, vitamin D deficiency, bruising easily, spasms in my tubes, brain fog, headaches and dizziness and my immune system wasn’t working properly. There was something definitely wrong.
After watching the news brocast I was so glad to hear that I wasn’t alone! It was the Essure Procedure! At this time my friends were now experiencing a few symptoms and we all became relieved to know that we were not alone yet scared to know what to do from here. I made an appointment with my OB GYN. They told me that me that I was peri-menaposal and that they highly recommend the essure procedure; there is nothing wrong with the device. I contacted a good friend of mine who started doing research on Essure. We found an AWESOME doctor here in Arizona: Dr. Joay Nemiro. He is part of the Arizona Fertility Center in Scottsdale Arizona. They are wonderful. They got me in for my initial consultation within a weeks time. He has been doing this procedure for many years. I had surgery this past December a month after my consultation. They cut the coils out and cauterized my tubes, a permant form of birth control without the foreign objects in my body. He had discovered several things during surgery: endometiosis on the outside of my uterus and bladder. The left coil was in the outside membrane of my tube, it wasn’t in the tube any longer, it had worked it’s way out of my tube. And my right coil had broken into pieces, which I believe is what I felt during all the spasms. He got to me just in time. I’m feeling so much better now, I can’t believe that I did that to my body! My hair is coming back, the sores are gone, my flu like symptoms are gone. I am now looking for a new Ob-Gyn and the beginning stages of menapause. My friend has now had surgery and doing better too. Thank you Dr. Jay for helping give us our lives back. Please Erin help us stop this aweful procedure so no other woman has to go thru what I have been thru.