Expert: Glenn A. Dorfman - 8/27/2007

Question
Glen,
I had a Mirena IUD inserted 3.5 years ago. 4 months ago went for annual
exam and doc said she couldn't see the strings. She continued looking and
finally she said they had nearly gone inside me and she pulled them down
adjusting the mirena. Since that time I gained weight, had extreme
lightheadedness, headaches (4 per week), very exteme bloating and
intermitent nausea. I went to the gyn and she said the symptoms couldn't be
related to the IUD and wanted to test me for thyroidism, pcos, and diabetes. I
left but my gut told me she was wrong so two weeks later I had it removed
Aug 1. Within one day the bloating was gone. Within two weeks the
headaches and nausea disappeared. The lightheadedness decreased a lot but
is still there somewhat. The weight is still hanging on (never had trouble
losing weight and am not overweight even with the extra lbs.) But I still feel
like my hormones are completely out of whack - had a crazy breakout of zits,
trouble getting a good nights rest, and am having some weird tingling and
sort of numbness in my feet and down my leg similar to sciatica. I am angry
that I was not informed completely of the side effects of this IUD and that the
company has no information for women going off the IUD. They have no
information about what to do if you have symptoms while on the IUD except
to go to the doctor which I did and she didn't believe it was the IUD. I went to
the Mirena web site and the company does list many of these symptoms but
they say that they happen to such a small percentage of women. Then, I got
online and found hundreds of women with my same complaints. And, I found
an attorney filing a class action suit against the company. I am angry and I
feel like my health has been jepordized. I feel helpless because it seems like
something is wrong with me and I have crappy insurance and just don't feel
up to loads of tests. I also feel like we are a sue-happy country and am on the
fence about participating in the class action suit. My questions for you are: if
none of the doctors will attribute my symptoms (and the hundreds of other
women) to the IUD then how on earth can an attorney win a law suit against
them? Also, the company admits to not having done any studies about the
long-term affects (also something I was unaware of) so how will I know what
has been caused by the IUD? And finally, since many of my symptoms have
either gone away or subsided since it has been removed would you
recommend joining the class action if you were me.

Answer
Back in the 80s and into the 90s I handled hundreds of Dalkon Shield IUD cases. In those cases, we had a real "smoking gun". The string was multi-filamented like a kerosene lamp wick and it caused bacteria to crawl up into the uterus and cause pelvic infection which led to many related and serious problems.  From years of working on those cases, the only side-effects of any IUD, to my knowledge (and I am not a doctor of course) are infection which causes pelvic inflammatory disease, blockage of the tubes, tubal pregnancies, bleeding, pain, infertility. An IUD can also migrate and perforate the uterus. An IUD does not cause endometriosis and some of your symptoms are suggestive of that. An IUD cannot cause weight gain, zits, hormone problems, light headedness (unless you are bleeding)or any of those other vague problems you are having. Something else is going on with you.  It may just be psychological.  Fear of the IUD or fear of anything can cause what you perceive as medical symptoms, just as easily as a fake pill or injection can make someone feel better, called the placebo affect. It works in reverse also.  Many class action cases turn out to be based on falsehoods but a lawyer might start one if he can find an "expert" to say something was wrong with the medical product and enough people sign on as plaintiffs. By shear numbers the company can be forced to settle. This is what happened with breast implants. I had some of those cases but gave them up when I learned that the science did not support the theory that silicone causes systemic health problems.  The company paid up to thousands of women anyhow.  Even if you joined the class action, your cause would have little value.  You did not have an ectopic pregnany, PID, infertility etc. I don't see any point in you doing anything but going on with your life in which event you might start to feel better. Of course, check on the endometriosis and other general health problems.