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Your doctor recommended the Mirena IUD. She said it would be safe, effective and easy
to use. Now you've found out that the Mirena IUD has perforated your uterus and you're
going to require surgery to remove it with possibly risking the loss of your uterus.
Do you have a case against the manufacturer of Mirena? My name is Stuart Scott, a pharmaceutical
and medical device lawyer here in Ohio. As you probably know, Mirena is an IUD manufactured
by Bayer. It is inserted by your doctor in an office procedure that's fairly routine
and takes about 5 minutes. It provides hormonal birth control. And like all drugs, Mirena
has certain side effects and risks. The law says that the manufacturer of a drug has to
provide you and your doctor with all of the known side effects and complications. This
is because your doctor can then understand what the risks are; discuss those risks with
you as the patient and then you and your doctor together can figure out whether it's the right
decision for you. So how do you know whether this side effect is caused by the fault of
Mirena? Well, number one, women who have just given birth should not receive the Mirena
IUD. During the first six to twelve weeks post-partum, the uterus is still contracting
and the insertion of the Mirena product could result in perforation. Second, women who are
breast feeding are not candidates for Mirena. This is because studies have shown women who
are breast feeding -- even several months after post-partum -- are still a risk for
having uterine contraction. The other issue is when did the perforation occur? One of
the risks of the IUD is when your doctor inserts it, he or she may insert in a way that causes
the uterine to rupture. How do you know? Well, within about a week or two after its initial
insertion the doctor should have you come back for a follow up visit. The purpose of
this follow up visit is either to do an x-ray or an ultrasound to determine exactly where
the Mirena device is. Mirena is designed in a way so that a plain film x-ray or an ultrasound
will give a very high resolution picture that the doctor can see exactly where it is. If
it's where it's supposed to be in the uterus then everything is fine. The second way the
doctor can tell if it's in the right position is that there is a string attached to the
bottom of the Mirena device. If the doctor can find the string in its correct location
then one can safely assume that Mirena is in its proper position in the uterus. If this
string can't be found or it's not where it should be then your doctor needs to investigate
why. Because it might be that the IUD device has migrated in the uterus and perhaps has
even penetrated the uterine wall. If everything checks out on this follow up visit, then according
to Bayer, you should be fine. There is absolutely no warning that your Mirena device is going
to cause any injury to your uterus. But here's the problem: hundreds of women are finding
out that they're suffering embedment of the IUD device or perforations of their uterus
months after it's been inserted. You might have questions about your own Mirena case.
If you do, call us. We have the answers. We've been answering these questions for years.
My name is Stuart Scott, pharmaceutical and medical device lawyer here in Ohio. Thank
you for watching.