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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Five Women Sue Norplant Maker

Associated Press

In what their lawyer says is the 50th lawsuit to be filed against the manufacturer, five women from Washington state have filed suit in U.S. District Court here against the maker of the Norplant contraceptive implant.

Hundreds of women around the nation have said they have had health problems as a result of using the Norplant implant.

“My husband and I can’t even plan out a family. It’s been hell, awful. I would not recommend this for anybody,” Jennifer Frost, 23, of Tacoma, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

She is one of the five plaintiffs in the latest litigation against WyethAyerst Laboratories, a Delaware corporation.

The other women are Ginger Nobach of Marysville, Becky Wells of Arlington, Jeanne Burch of Sedro Woolley and Tiffany Ryan of Centralia. They’re in their 20s and 30s.

Cydney Campbell, a Seattle lawyer representing the five women, said the company has been sued 49 times previously.

Campbell said she also filed a suit in March on behalf of a Seattle woman who had the Norplant implant inserted and later removed.”This has been a nightmare for me and my husband,” Frost said.

Frost said she had Norplant capsules implanted in her arm in April 1993 because she believed they would be a more effective and convenient form of birth control than taking the pill.

But, she said, she experienced prolonged menstrual bleeding and stomach pains and had to have major surgery for removal of her left ovary and fallopian tube in December.

She said she had the six capsules removed from her arm in September. Because tissue had grown around the implants, the surgery proved difficult and left a scar that continues to cause pain, she said.

Arriving with great fanfare in 1990, the Norplant device was hailed as the first new birth control method offered to women in the United States since oral contraceptives were introduced 25 years ago.

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