More than a thousand women have lost a class action against pharmaceutical giant Bayer. A Victorian judge has rejected their claims the company's contraceptive device caused severe health problems. The women have been left stunned and insist the Essure product caused them bleeding and crippling pain.
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00:00These women have suffered physically and emotionally.
00:06Their pain made worse today because Victoria Supreme Court simply doesn't believe them.
00:11This was a very disappointing and terrible judgement.
00:15I was here to prove to the male doctors it was never in my head.
00:20And I can hold my head high.
00:22The class action centred on this tiny contraceptive device called Assure.
00:26The metal coils were inserted into women's fallopian tubes designed to cause scarring and a permanent blockage.
00:33But more than a thousand Australian women sued the manufacturer Bayer,
00:37arguing Assure caused side effects including severe bleeding and constant pain.
00:42Some, like Tanya Davidson, had to have a hysterectomy to fix the problem.
00:47Today a judge ruled the plaintiff in the case couldn't prove Assure was defective
00:52or that it caused long-term health problems.
00:55I'm not satisfied that she has established that Assure can cause ongoing chronic inflammation in some women
01:01resulting in chronic pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea or abnormal uterine bleeding.
01:07This was a definitive win for Bayer after six years in the legal system.
01:12In a statement the company says it stands by its product and says the science shows it's both safe and efficient.
01:19That's not how these women see it.
01:22From before insertion I had no issues whatsoever and post-insertion it all started.
01:30We've been injured by this device and the pharmaceutical companies should be held responsible.
01:35Assure was taken off the market in 2017 but Bayer insists that was purely for commercial reasons.
01:42In the US the company settled a similar lawsuit for more than a billion dollars without admitting any wrongdoing.
01:49In Australia Bayer defended itself in court.
01:52Now the women and their lawyers will decide whether to appeal.
01:56We'll always be here if there's another day to fight we'll be here to fight it.