Over a hundred Scanian women suffered from broken spirals

"Anna" and her partner live in Malmö and feel ready to have children and that is why she wanted to pick out her spiral. But the visit to the midwife was a shock.

- It had broken and some were missing. The midwife tried to get it out, but she was unsuccessful, says "Anna", who wants to be anonymous and is really called something else.

Anna was referred to the women's clinic for examination with ultrasound and possible surgery - but there were no times and only to come on a first visit Anna would have to wait for months.

Because Anna was in pain and became very worried about how this would affect her ability to have children, she applied to the gynecologist at the women's clinic in Malmö.

- I asked them if there is a risk that my fertility would be damaged if a piece of the spiral remained in me and how they look at it. Then I was told that I can actually get on an fallopian tube if I want to get pregnant. It felt completely absurd, Anna says.

Said Makari, the chief medical officer at the women's clinic in Malmö, thinks it was an inappropriate response that Anna received that she could be calm because she "would be able to get on a fallopian tube". However, he believes that there is little risk of women being harmed.

- In the vast majority of cases, the small part of the spiral has gone out with the first period after the withdrawal. Personally, I have very rarely been involved in the fact that it remains, says Said Makari.

He confirms that many more women than Anna have suffered the same.

- There are over a hundred women who were affected by a certain kind of copper spiral that was inserted between 2015 and 2017. Previously, we have been involved in the fact that single spirals broke when it was taken out, but to this extent as it is now we have never been Said Makari, chief medical officer at the women's clinic in Malmö, says.

The clinic has now doubled its visiting hours and staffed up with extra staff, but still does not always manage to maintain the care guarantee for 90 days.

The problems with the spirals are known before and the spirals were used extensively in the Skåne region from 2015 until 2017 when they were stopped. Most of the reported cases received by the Swedish Medicines Agency come from Skåne but also from Gothenburg and Stockholm. Many who put in the spirals then have not yet taken them out.

- We expect that there will be even more cases, says Said Makari.