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Essure Pain and Fatigue: One Woman’s Personal Experience

Essure-pain-and-fatigue-is-there-a-relationship

Merari and Elmer are serious Green Bay fans!
Left to right: Dr. Monteith, Merari, Elmer

Essure pain and fatigue? Is there a relationship?

Merari is 34 years of age, the mother of four children, and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has had her Essure devices for seven years. One year after her Essure devices were inserted she began to experience back pain and fatigue.

Despite multiple evaluations and even weight loss surgery, her symptoms did not improve. After six years of experiencing back pain and fatigue, she decided to have her Essure devices removed to alleviate the Essure pain and fatigue she was suffering. While having surgery at A Personal Choice, Merari was the focus of an ABC News segment about women suffering from Essure related symptoms.

Hear from Merari in her own words: ABC News | Essure and Side Effects

Can Essure cause pain? Can Essure cause fatigue?

Essure has been associated with pain in some women. In Essure side-effect data submitted to the FDA, 9% of women reported pain 12 months after Essure insertion and 2.9% of women reported severe menstrual cramps 12 months after Essure insertion.

Although some women have complained of fatigue after Essure, fatigue as an Essure related side-effect has not been well studied.

Merari’s Essure experience: Pain, fatigue, palpitations

Merari did well after her Essure devices were inserted. She did not begin to notice symptoms until 12 months after Essure insertion when she began to experience back pain and fatigue. She also began having chest pain and heart palpitations.

She consulted with her doctors who advised her she was overweight and this was the cause of her symptoms. She had a full evaluation and no other medical conditions were diagnosed.

At the recommendation of her doctors, Merari underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost 160lbs! Despite the weight loss, her symptoms did not improve. Instead her symptoms of pain and fatigue after Essure became worse.

Essure: Stabbing pain and emergency room visits

Merari’s pain became worse after weight loss surgery for reasons no one could explain. She felt stabbing pains on her left and right sides. She had four visits to the emergency room for evaluation of pain. She reports the pain was a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10. No clear cause could be identified. Her palpitations were initially blamed on being overweight. After gastric bypass her doctors blamed her rapid weight loss as the cause of her palpitations.

Merari began to consider Essure device removal because no other cause for her symptoms could be identified. This was a difficult decision for her because her doctors did not have a clear reason why she was experiencing her symptoms. Ultimately, she became remarried and this convinced her to have surgery to remove Essure. Her second husband did not have any children.

They felt Essure removal would help evaluate and possibly treat her symptoms as well as provide her with an opportunity to become pregnant again.

Essure pain and fatigue: Can reversal surgery help?

Merari made the decision to have her Essure reversal with Dr. Monteith at A Personal Choice because of his extensive experience with Essure reversal surgery. Rather than opt for a simple removal of the Essure devices (which would remove the devices but leave her unable to become naturally pregnant) she decided to have an Essure reversal.

Dr. Monteith performs Essure reversal by removing the Essure devices and re-implanting the remaining healthy fallopian tubes into the uterine cavity. This is called a tubouterine implantation procedure. Tubouterine implantation allows any remaining Essure scar tissue to be by-passed and restores the ability to become naturally pregnant. The chance of pregnancy after Essure reversal is 35% to 40%.

Merari did well during her Essure reversal. The entire surgery lasted 84 minutes and her estimated blood loss was 15 ml (3 teaspoons).

Pregnant within 1 month of Essure reversal surgery!

Essure reversal procedure is successful

Baby in the uterus first month after Essure reversal!

Her Essure coils were in the correct location and there was no visible reason as to why the Essure coils would have caused her pain.

Merari will keep us updated on how her Essure pain and fatigue symptoms have responded to Essure removal but for now she will have to focus on her new pregnancy!

Merari reported pregnancy the first month after having her Essure sterilization reversal surgery:
Essure reversal pregnancy: Pregnant the first month after reversal surgery

Dr. Monteith has performed over 240 surgeries to remove and/or reverse Essure sterilization. Many patients have surgery only to treat their Essure related symptoms but not to become pregnant. For patients who would like more information about the chance of symptom relief after Essure removal, Dr. Monteith conducted a survey of his patients who had Essure removal for symptom treatment only.

See results of Dr. Monteith’s survey | Symptom response after Essure removal surgery

More information about removing Essure devices?

If you want like more information about Essure reversal or Essure removal surgery at A Personal Choice then enter your email address below and the staff of A Personal Choice will email you additional information about Essure reversal/removal surgery.

The staff will send one email only, will not use your email for any other purpose, and will not contact you for any other reason.

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surgery-to-treat-Essure-caused-pain-and-fatigueAbout A Personal Choice

A Personal Choice is an AAAHC accredited specialty surgical center in Raleigh, North Carolina dedicated exclusively to female and and male sterilization reversal.

Dr. Monteith is the Medical Director of A Personal Choice and he exclusively performs tubal ligation reversal, Essure removal, Essure reversal, and vasectomy reversal surgery.

You are welcome to call (919) 968-4656 to speak with a staff member if you have any questions about having surgery with Dr. Monteith.

 

Have Questions? We’re Happy To Help!

We provide a unique surgical experience with personalized attention and one-on-one care. We make every effort to make your surgery less of a process and more of a life’s experience. Please use the buttons below for answers to our frequently asked questions.

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If you are considering reversal surgery and have questions about the procedure, fill in the form below and we'll get back to you as soon as we can! If you would like to speak with a nurse for a Free Consultation then feel free to call us at (919) 977-5050.

Please view our most frequently asked questions before sending your questions.

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