The Washington Post, Published on July 26, 2017
Nobody can say exactly how many women have had Essure implanted since the device went on the market in 2002. Bayer, which is headquartered in Germany, says that more than 750,000 devices have been sold worldwide and that sales “continue to grow.”
In recent years, the [US] Food and Drug Administration has received more than 16,000 adverse-event reports about Essure. These are official reports about symptoms, hospitalizations or diagnoses that patients, doctors, hospitals or a device manufacturer believe are associated with a device.
“It seems every two or three years we have another controversy in women’s health,” says Steve Xu, a health-policy researcher and Northwestern University dermatology resident.