A 31-year-old Portuguese woman was hospitalised after her birth control implant ended up in her left lung.
Yep, you know that little matchstick-sized device that’s meant to stay in your arm? Well according to a 10 Daily report, this one went on a bit of a journey!
As if female contraceptive methods weren’t already daunting enough, the woman didn’t even realise something was seriously wrong until an x-ray located the missing Implanon NXT device in her lung.
[jwplayer sWWiVl8P]
Implanon NXT, which is the proper name for the “rod” or the “bar”, is meant to sit nicely in your bicep for three years and protect you from unplanned pregnancy. However, I’m not exactly sure how well it works when it ends up in another part of your body.
This wasn’t even the woman’s first experience with the bar, she’d actually had two successful (by successful I mean NOT in her lungs) implants prior to this debacle.
Her symptoms included abnormal bleeding for three months, which is definitely a cause for concern. That’s when the anonymous woman went to her doctor for help.
After being unable to find the device in her arm, the doctor ordered a chest x-ray to locate the implant. It turns out it was in her lung and it required a pretty gnarly surgery to retrieve it.
Luckily, the surgery was a success and the woman was discharged a few days later with no other complications.
Wanna know the really scary part?
THIS ISN’T EVEN THE FIRST TIME AN IMPLANT HAS GONE MISSING!
According to a 2018 FDA report, over 400 reports of dislodged Implanon devices have been reported, with at least 100 of those being classed as serious.
Nexplanon, a US manufacturer of the implants, has the following (terrifying) disclaimer on their website:
“Implants have been found in the pulmonary artery (a blood vessel in the lung). If the implant cannot be found in the arm, your health care professional may use x-rays or other imaging methods on the chest. If the implant is located in the chest, surgery may be needed.”
Obviously, most birth control methods (at least the ones women have to use) are invasive and have side effect lists as long as your arm, but this story is up there with one of the most fucked contraceptive stories of all time.
Why can’t we just have birth control stickers? Or maybe like birth control edible gummies? Birth control ice-cream? So many great options that DON’T require needles, surgery or weird foreign objects ending up in places they shouldn’t be.
