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WHAT IS THE ESSURE DEVICE THAT HAS CAUSED CONTROVERSY AROUND THE WORLD?

Essure is a permanent birth control procedure that involves inserting a tube into a woman's fallopian tubes.

It is non-hormonal and causes the build-up of scar tissue that prevents sperm from reaching eggs and eggs from implanting into the walls of the uterus.

According to Essure.com, the device is 99.3 percent effective when used as the sole method of contraception. 

Women who have had the device fitted claim it has left them in agonising pain, with some even being driven to the brink of suicide.

Essure launched onto the global market in 2002, with more than 34,000 women across the world complaining of side effects in the years since.

In July this year, it was announced that Essure will be discontinued in the US amid reports of thousands of women suffering excruciating pain, bleeding and allergic reactions.

Allergic reactions are thought to occur due to the device containing nickel and polyester. 

The US Food and Drug Administration previously placed multiple restrictions on the device following patient reports of adverse events.

Such events included the device 'migrating' and even perforating organs.

In May, the FDA said doctors must show women a checklist of the device's risks before implanting it, which caused demand for the implant to plummet. 

Essure was first marketed in the UK in 2009. In August 2017, Bayer instructed hospitals to stop using it. 

Although there had been a growing number of complaints against the device, Bayer insisted the product was is withdrawn worldwide for ‘commercial reasons’, with women preferring permanent methods of sterilisation. 

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