On January 2013, plaintiffs from various district courts banded together and submitted a petition to the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. They have requested the federal court in Ohio to consolidate all Mirena lawsuit into a multidistrict litigation proceeding in that state.
Many Mirena lawyers are hopeful that the petition will be accepted. According to them, this consolidation will benefit all parties by simplifying pretrial proceedings and eliminating multiplicity of actions. They believe that the consolidation will speed up the process of handling such complex cases.
An article published on a personal injury law firm website, the Rottenstein Law Group’s rotlaw.com, states that Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals previously filed a similar petition to merge all Mirena cases in Middlesex County. However, the court rejected the company’s request in January 2013, a week before the new petition was filed by plaintiffs.
The Mirena intrauterine device is a T-shaped contraceptive device made of polyethylene plastic. This device prevents gestation by releasing a constant amount of levonorgestrel directly into the uterus. It can avert pregnancy for up to five years. Moreover, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration certified Mirena in 2000. It was further approved in 2009 for the treatment of heavy menstruation.
Many women prefer using Mirena due to its convenient design. While oral contraceptives are taken daily, the Mirena intrauterine device is only inserted once every five years. Moreover, the device is easily reversible. As a result, over a million women in the United States have switched from birth control pills to Mirena.
In recent years, however, reports of Mirena complications have increased significantly. In fact, an increasing number of cases against Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals have been filed in various federal courts all over the United States. Majority of these cases claim that the Mirena intrauterine device have perforated the uterine wall of its users. Moreover, other lawsuits claim that the device have become embedded in the abdomen or uterus of its users, resulting in organ damage and infertility.
Aside from the aforementioned Mirena complications, other side effects have also been reported. These side effects include infection, adhesion, abscesses, device ejection, inflammation, obstruction, and pelvic inflammatory disease. In rare instances, the Mirena intrauterine device has been reported to cause ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy refers to pregnancy that occurs outside of the womb. This medical condition is considered as one of the most dangerous complications that has been linked to the hormonal intrauterine device.