June 6, 2017 – Philadelphia Inquirer – The ranks of women harmed by Essure sterilization coils continue to grow, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to inform them of the risks are not working, a 37,000-member advocacy group declared Tuesday.
Administrators of the six-year-old Facebook group Essure Problems said that in the first quarter of this year, the FDA received about 2,000 reports of women who underwent operations — usually hysterectomies — to remove coils that were causing complications such as pain and bleeding.
More than 9,000 removals have been reported since 2009, in addition to miscarriages, fetal deaths, and other problems, according to an analysis of the FDA’s “adverse events” reporting system. It was conducted by Madris Tomes, a former FDA manager who is the founding CEO of Device Events, based in York, Pa.