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Something wasn’t right during your Paragard removal (took forever, multiple removal attempts). This means it may have broken. Learn about your legal options.

# Paragard Lawsuit

Paragard Was Supposed to Be a Safer IUD – Except It Wasn’t

Navigating the complex landscape of birth control can be overwhelming. It’s hard to know what’s right for you. You thought maybe an IUD instead of a pill. Less maintenance, right? And you didn’t want those extra hormones; you heard they may not be safe. Paragard seemed like the perfect answer: an easy, low-maintenance, hormone-free solution.

All you wanted was (1) a birth control device proven to prevent pregnancy and (2) to be using a safe medical device, right?

We hate to say it, but Paragard failed you.

Paragard has been linked to a series of health problems, such as breaking during removal and requiring surgery to remove the broken pieces. The terrifying part? This means a woman may never be able to have children again.

This isn’t right. Making smart decisions about your reproductive health should NOT cost you your ability to have a child if you choose to do so.

“The ‘Broken’ IUD”

A 2015 article titled “The ‘Broken’ IUD: Its Detection And Clinical Management,” published in the Open Journal of Clinical and Medical Case Reports, explored data on a series of broken IUDs, all Paragard. The article notes that while IUDs are a popular form of birth control and can be both safe and effective, clinicians should be more aware of the potential dangers of IUDs breaking.

Paragard IUD has also been linked to other problems, including:

Perforation of the uterus or cervix
IUD pieces missing or lodged in organs
Need for surgery such as hysterectomy, laparoscopy or laparotomy
Infertility/sterility
Inflammation and allergic reactions to IUD pieces left in the body (e.g., copper)
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) and Endometritis (uterine infection)
Infection/sepsis (blood poisoning)
Broken IUD pieces that cannot be removed
Pain

Learn More

Filing a Paragard Lawsuit Isn’t Just About Money, It’s About Helping Protect Others

Getting an IUD shouldn’t make you lose your ability to grow your family. While a lawsuit can’t change that, it can help you pay for expensive medical bills, such as surgeries needed to remove pieces of the IUD or help cover for time off work. But most importantly, a lawsuit can help send a message to the manufacturers of Paragard that this isn’t okay.

By filing a Paragard IUD lawsuit, you can help protect other women from being hurt by Paragard in the future. Contact us today for a completely free and confidential consult with a Paragard lawyer.

Start Your Paragard Lawsuit

*The law firms we work with handle cases on a contingency basis. That means you pay nothing up front for the attorneys to represent you. If the case is not successful, then the law firm absorbs all of the costs and you pay nothing. If the case is successful, the law firm retains a percentage of the total settlement value. This is detailed in your agreement.

Paragard Fracture Can Lead to Hysterectomy & Sterility

In the U.S., Paragard is the only available non-hormonal, copper IUD on the market, FDA-approved in 1984 and launched in 1988. As of August 2022, 1,021 women have filed liability charges against makers Teva Pharmaceuticals and Cooper Companies, Inc., in a recent lawsuit that has been consolidated into a multi-district litigation, or MDL.

Plaintiffs’ primary claim alleges their Paragard broke inside them upon removal in-office. The tiny T-shaped Paragard has been known to break during removal, sending plastic, wire, copper residue, and string drifting into the uterine cavity where debris can migrate into fallopian tubes and nearby organs, disappear or, worse, become embedded in tissue. If surgery to remove the lodged shard involves hysterectomy, young women (many of them childless) are left barren in the prime childbearing stage of their life.

Plaintiffs also allege the companies knew about the defects and did nothing to inform consumers, least of all provide adequate warnings on the packaging.

Government Alerts

The National Institutes of Health/National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH/NCBI) is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the nation’s primary medical research agency and world’s largest biomedical research entity.

In January 2021, NIH warned of the importance of careful removal of copper IUDs in an article titled, “Fractured copper intrauterine device (IUD) retained in uterine wall leading to hysterectomy: A case study.” The study details the story of a 38-year-old woman who had a copper Paragard IUD placed 10 years prior; the woman was now requesting its removal in her doctor’s office. ¹

The procedure was carefully conducted, but when the doctor’s forceps applied gentle pressure to pull the device out, its right T-wing broke off. An ultrasound confirmed the fragment was embedded in the woman’s uterine wall near the cervix. She was rushed to OR for surgical removal of the piece by robot-assisted total laparoscopic hysterectomy with bilateral salpingectomy (the latter means removal of both fallopian tubes).

In order to eliminate the missing fragment and prevent internal hemorrhage, her uterus was removed; she would never bear a child.

Experienced complications from a broken Paragard IUD?

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Paragard History

Branded by Pharmaceuticals under the name Paragard (or ParaGard), the metallic IUD was first invented in 1929 by German physician Ernst Grafenburg using silver wrapped in silk instead of hormones to “decapitate” sperm. The metal filament concept was improved by Howard Tatum and Jamie Zipper with the first introduction of a copper IUD in 1967.

Teva sold the Paragard brand to Cooper Companies (Pleasanton, California) in 2017 for $1.1 billion. Billed as the most natural, most effective, long-term, low-maintenance contraceptive on the American market, it was considered revolutionary, boasting no notable side effects – maybe a little light bleeding or intermittent spotting – and a greater than 99% assurance of preventing pregnancy.

Paragard’s design incorporates two T-wings (arms) attached at 90° angles to a vertical plastic stem wrapped in copper coil. At the bottom, strings are trimmed to retract just inside the vaginal entrance to assist in removal. When pressure is gently applied with forceps, the horizontal arms theoretically fold up, enabling the device to slide down through the uterus, which is aligned with the cervix, and exit through the vagina.

Using copper filament instead of hormone solution as spermicide (sperm cells are revolted by copper), Paragard is considered the most widely used reversible contraceptive on the U.S. market.

Paragard Was Supposed to Be a Safer IUD – Except It Wasn’t.

As early as 2015, an article was published in the Open Journal of Clinical and Medical Case Reports that explored data on a series of broken IUDS – all of them involving ParaGard® 380A copper IUD. “The ‘Broken’ IUD: Its Detection and Clinical Management” notes that while IUDs are a popular form of long-term birth control and can be both safe and effective, healthcare providers should be more aware of the potential dangers of IUDs breaking (specifically ParaGard 380A).2

What Makes Paragard So Attractive to Women?

Paragard’s use of copper coiling instead of hormones is advantageous because copper doesn’t typically disrupt menstrual cycles. Theoretically, the product also:

Eliminates the need to interrupt sex for contraception
Can remain in place for up to 10 years
Can be removed at any time (in-office)
Can be used while breastfeeding
Doesn’t carry the risk of side effects, such as blood clots related to hormonal birth control methods
Can be used for emergency contraception if inserted within 5 days after unprotected sex

Sadly, it doesn’t always work as advertised.

Paragard doesn’t always work according to design. The akimbo (or T-Shaped) arms have been known to break off instead of folding into mummy position for easy removal.

1/ If the device breaks in utero, copper wire, plastic, and string are sent into the uterine cavity where sharp fragments may drift out of reach, migrate into fallopian tubes, collide with nearby organs, puncture, or become lodged in tissue – or disappear altogether.

2/ When a Paragard fracture results in a foreign object’s embedding in uterine tissue, surgical removal is required to eliminate the piece and/or prevent internal bleeding, which is fatal if unchecked. If surgery involves hysterectomy, the young patient (statistically 15-44) is left sterile during the most fertile stage of life.

These are life-altering complications, especially when considering the context: 150 million women worldwide depend on copper IUDs for effective birth control (“set it and forget it”). ³

What Can You Do About Paragard?

If you or a loved one has been hurt by a Paragard copper IUD breaking inside you, contact us. You may be able to participate in the Paragard lawsuit, which allows women impacted by Paragard-related injury to seek compensation for resulting medical bills, salary gaps and psychological impact.

We’re Here to Help You

A Case for Women was founded to help women who have been hurt by corrupt institutions and companies to turn that hurt into meaningful action that can lead to systemic change in our world. Surprisingly (or not), women are disproportionately harmed by drugs and medical devices.

We were proud to have helped thousands of women in the Essure birth control litigation, which resulted in Essure, a supposedly safe form of permanent birth control, being removed from the market. We’ve also worked with women who have been assaulted in an Uber or Lyft, leading to the implementation of safety protocols for rideshare companies that protect riders.

We have helped educate more than one thousand women about their legal rights related to broken Paragard IUDs and, when possible, connected them with law firms to represent them in litigation for no up-front fee.

Sources

Jordan Sarver, Melissa Cregan, Daniel Cain, “Fractured copper intrauterine device (IUD) retained in the uterine wall leading to hysterectomy: A case report,” NIH (National Library of Medicine/National Center for Biotechnology Information)/ PMC (PubMed Central), January 23, 2021.
Carlos M. Fernandez, MD, Marie A. Cabiya, MD, Elliot M. Levine, MD, Kemoria Granberry, MD, Stephen Locher, MD, “The ‘Broken’ IUD: Its Detection and Clinical Management,” Open Journal of Clinical and Medical Case Reports,” 2015.
Bliss Kaneshiro and Tod Aeby, “Long-term safety, efficacy and patient acceptability of the intrauterine Copper T-380A [Paragard] contraceptive device,” NIH/PMC/Int J Women’s Health, August 9, 2010.