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.
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