Essure Procedure

Three years after getting Essure implanted I started having chronic pain in my abdomen that would last for days at a time, all month long. It was a rare day that I wasn’t in severe pain and it got worse about ten days before my period and lasted through mensus and days afterwards. My periods had always been bad, but worsened after getting Essure, continuing to worsen over the years. I had an xray, ultrasound and an MRI to try to find out what was causing my pain. I had really bad pain on my left side where my ovary was located. After getting these tests and ruling out other problems, I started doing some research online. I wondered if Essure could be causing the pain and problems. I remembered that the implanting obgyn had said that there was a warning on the label that said a Nickel allergy could cause bad reactions in rare cases. Originally I had told the doctor that I had a reaction to some jewelry that wasn’t made of precious metal and asked her if I should get tested to see if I had a nickel allergy. She told me that it was rare and I wouldn’t have any problems and she advised me to get implanted without being tested. I trusted her and got implanted with Essure and had the test to confirm my tubes were blocked several months later.

After my problems started I switched obgyns because I no longer trusted my old obgyn after her bad advice. Among the symptoms that I experienced was abdominal pain, cramping, tingling, numbness, insomnia from pain, severe bloating, lower back pain, stabbing ice pick pain especially my left ovary, unusual bleeding, a funny vibrating feeling in the area of my tubes, fatigue, pain so bad I almost fainted, dizziness, a rash, heavy periods with clotting, pain so bad I would miss work and mood swings. The new doctor thought I may have endometriois or that Essure could be causing my pain but we wouldn’t know until the surgery was done. A nickel allergy test confirmed I’m allergic to nickel. I kept a pain and symptom diary to show my new doctor.  I was in pain for ten months before getting the surgery to remove the coils. Fortunately for me my doctor was willing to remove just the coils and didn’t insist on a hysterectomy as others have had to do. My coils hadn’t migrated or broken so I was lucky in that respect. Also I was lucky that my doctor’s new associate had performed this surgery previously so they both would be performing my surgery. When the doctors went in and removed the coils I had almost no sign of endometriosis. My pain was gone immediately after my surgery and it’s still gone 9 months later. We both believe the Essure was the cause of all my pain. My doctor filed a report with the FDA.

I was fortunate my insurance paid to have my coils removed due to my chronic pain. I did have to pay a very high deductible and had to borrow the money from my mother. In addtion to the financial loss, I lost almost a year of my life because of Essure because it was spent in dehabilitating chronic pain. I wouldn’t recommend this device to anyone and hope that this product will be recalled to save others from the misery.