Bayer's Essure Blamed for 73 Deaths

Jan 19

Bayer stopped selling its Essure birth control device in the U.S. late in 2018 due to thousands of reports from the public of complications.

Mesh Medical Device News Desk

Women who used Essure experienced pain, device migration, perforation, heavier periods, breaking of the Essure and a failure to prevent pregnancy. At least 49 people are reported to have died due to their Essure implant. Litigation followed.

Essure consists of metal coils that are inserted into the fallopian tubes where they block an egg from implanting. The theory is that scar tissue would form around the implant essentially blocking the tube and preventing pregnancy. Bayer has now released its early adverse event reports, collected from the FDA’s MAUDE data on complications.

It shows:

7,509 reportable events

73 deaths

104 malfunctions of Essure

3,829 reports of pregnancies in patients with Essure from 2002 through 2019

Bayer promises to provide quarterly analyses on Essure and the FDA promises to make spreadsheets on adverse events associated with essure, available every month.