Life came hard and fast for young PhD grad Megan Nichole when she found out she was pregnant. At first, the idea of pregnancy sounded ridiculous, she was in the middle of a fellowship program and had big plans for the future. She and her boyfriend didn’t even live together since they were both focusing on their careers. But the pregnancy was mostly shocking because Megan had been using the Copper Coil IUD for four years as a contraceptive. The failure of these devices is also the subject of many legal cases including the Paragard lawsuit.
A Mysterious Pregnancy
While no contraception guarantees 100% effectiveness, the chances of a malfunction are very slim. That’s why the first thing Megan had to do was go to her doctor to find out how this could have happened. Her doctor confirmed her pregnancy and also commented one possible reason for it: “He said, perhaps the IUD had moved out of position or dislodged. But when he did check, it was where it was supposed to be – no one knows why it happened.”
Megan had to act quickly. She left her fellowship and moved home to focus on her pregnancy and having a healthy birth. Her plan was to have a natural birth, avoiding the use of an epidural which is to treat back pain during labour. She wanted a completely natural birth and focused instead on natural, medication-free techniques to alleviate her pains.
Before she could ease into it, she went unexpectedly into labour. It began with feelings of constipation, but after getting it checked out by a doctor, she found out she was already 10 cm dilated. Only five minutes after she went into the operating room, her son was born. “I kept thinking ‘Did that just really happen?’ I was so in shock,” she said. “ I didn’t emotionally catch up with everything that had happened until he was about two months old.”
YouTube Vlogger Tells Her Story
Another device is currently the subject of a Paragard lawsuit after one woman experienced the same failures as Megan. This woman had a history of miscarriages and was scarred from having any more children, that’s why she decided on contraception. She uploaded her story on YouTube to help spread information about the risks of IUD’s.
“My pregnancy test came back positive. I was in complete shock because I have the Paragard IUD, it’s a 10 year IUD and I had it in for 3 years so I didn’t really even think that pregnancy was possible,” she said. “Turns out that there’s a .8% chance of getting pregnant with the Paragard. And I’m that .8%, I guess.
“They were finally able to find a tiny little grey speck on the very tip of my uterus, and the doctor said that was where the egg had implanted. There was no sack or heartbeat or anything like that, it was just a tiny tiny grey speck. And he did confirm that my IUD had slipped very low and the pregnancy was above the IUD.”
Currently, attorneys for Paragard IUD lawsuits are lining up behind many women who have experienced these failures. But a Paragard lawsuit alone isn’t enough to eliminate the shock and stress of an unexpected pregnancy. The best thing women can do is get informed about the type of contraception they’re using.
