Sling The Mesh

Sling The Mesh Campaign. Image by: Michelle Deyna-Hayward.

2019 NEWS:

August 16: Snapshot survey of 16 hospitals shows that two hospitals defied the suspension and carried on using it. SEE 1207 2019-BJOG__An_International_Journal_of_Obstetrics_&_Gynaecology

August 8: Paper shows if women are  given fully informed consent on risks vs benefits they would  never choose mesh surgery

July 31: Taiwan calls for ban on vaginal mesh

July 29: Global plastics expert says plastic should not be implanted into humans. Sky News 

Opinion piece from Charlotte Lomas Farley

July 16:  HQIP announce plans for a database to log complications when mesh is used again..It is still not robust enough to capture the data on suffering. HQIP Interim-Surgical-Mesh-Database-Feasibility-Report-FINAL

June 28: Former chief of the FDA, Just two months after leaving his job of regulating medicines and devices, joins global drug giant Pfizer to help them get approval for their products. And so the revolving door continues…

June 14: NZ campaigners told a mesh register to track complications is too expensive

May 31: Hernia mesh complication risk is as high as 37%

May 28: MP Owen Smith gives evidence to the Baroness Cumberlege review. Far too many women, far too young and with conditions that didn’t really require this degree of intervention were given this operation.

May 25: Mesh has been used in the UK during the suspension. A total of 16 mesh slings and 164 suprapubic slings which could be either mesh or non mesh Surgery for urogynaecological prolapse or SUI using tape or mesh M12 suppressed (9)

May 16: Progress update from the UK mesh safety review by Baroness Cumberlege who says mesh isn’t coming back any time soon. “I have been clear that because the conditions required to lift the pause have not yet been met, and that it will clearly be some time before they are, for now and the foreseeable future mesh should not be used to treat stress urinary incontinence either in the NHS or the independent sector. I am pleased that NHS England has reminded NHS Trusts that the pause remains in place.”

May 9: Women hold rallies in London and in Manchester to protest against new mesh guidelines and that a mesh removal service has been stopped after 14 years. You Tube rally video here

May 3: FDA closes a secret filing system that for 20 yrs allowed medical giants to hide reports of patient harm.

May 2: Medical device director steps down from the MHRA amid vaginal mesh crisis,

April 22: J&J is ordered to pay a fine of $9.9 million or face trial for failing to warn of serious risk in its instructions for mesh kits. Fine issued by Washington Attorney General. See the You Tube annoncement.

April 20: India considers stopping pelvic mesh

April 16: The FDA immediately ban vaginal prolapse mesh in USA saying benefits do not outweigh risks.

April 8: STM issue stark warning to NHS Trusts after taking legal advice on the use of mesh.

April 2: Long awaited NICE guidelines publish. Sling The Mesh is deeply disappointed that, nothing has changed since 2003 and are so weak they pave the way for women of tomorrow to be harmed.

Professor Carl Heneghan says  “Campaigners fear the evidence is untrustworthy, biased and too low quality to inform decision making.”

March 15: FDA issue press statement  saying implant materials can cause auto immune reactions.

March 7: Mesh manufacturer Bard (BD) voluntarily withdraws all its urogynae mesh from the UK market.

March 1: Scientific community accepts for the first time that the plastic of mesh implants can act as an adjuvant for auto immune disease and allergies.

Feb 28: House of Lords debate on steps being taken in the UK to improve safety of medicines and devices.

Feb 12: Should vaginal mesh be pulled off the American market asks the FDA.

Feb 12: MP Owen Smith leads a Commons debate on toughening up medical implant regulations.

Jan 23: Surgeon Mohammed Abdel Fatteh of Aberdeen took £100K from a mesh maker but forgot to declare it when writing a study involving a mesh made by them. Abdel-Fatteh spoke at this heavily industry influenced conference in December 2018 where he said the mesh story was an emotional debate led by journalists and MPs. We say that doctors who take money from industry are a blot on medicine’s integrity.

Jan 9: Canadian study of 57,000 women shows patients who need mesh removal are at increased risk of depression and suicidal thoughts. This woman signs papers for assisted suicide

Jan 1: Govt announce plans for better access to physiotherapy for the 1 in 3 mums who suffer incontinence after giving birth.

 

2018 NEWS

December 20: The UK wide safety review into mesh. Evidence from all parties is published online on the IMMDS website

December 19: Australia announce first specialist treatment centre to open in 2019

December 18:  Evidence presented to the UK wide mesh safety review, led by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, will be published on its website this week

December 13: France issues patient safety monitoring alert for mesh. Meeting to be held on Jan 22

November 27:  Australia surgical mesh is raised from from medium to high risk  by the TGA Therapeutic Goods Administration

November 25: Global reporting team in 36 countries write about how faulty medical devices harm thousands of people globally

November 13: Sling The Mesh talks about the need for better medical device regulation in a conference in Geneva ISOP  where a global task force on medical devices is launched.

October 26: A Scottish Govt report into mesh implants failed women because it had potential conflicts of interest that were never declared or discussed. The whole report was  “ill-conceived, thoughtlessly structured and poorly executed.”

The original Scottish Mesh Report was expected to take six to 12 months. Ultimately it lasted almost three years and, just weeks before it was published in May 2017, three members resigned and branded it a whitewash after key warnings about safety were moved / hidden in the appendices.

October 23, 2018: The world is waking up to the fact there needs to be more transparency and regulation in clinical trials. House of Commons Research Integrity meeting

October 18: BSUG release data that shows TVT mesh has a 15% risk of injuries from the operation alone. That is without taking into consideration the life changing complications we see every day on the Sling The Mesh support page. Yet the BSUG database does not include data on women suffering new chronic pain, UTI, loss of sex life. All they use is form PG-1 which focuses on this – how many Tena Lady pads do you use?

October 11: The BMJ publish a damning article on how mesh was introduced based only on marketing literature from the mesh makers. There was no shortage of  warnings in 2003, but the mesh genie was already out of the bottle and being promoted by manufacturers. By 2002-03 over 4,000 TVT and TOT operations a year were being carried out in England and no registry of procedures was in sight. See NICE 2003 guidance here

October 10: Australian Government issue a national apology to women affected by the mesh implant disaster

October 9:  NICE issue draft guidelines on mesh use for incontinence and prolapse but campaigners say in the Cambs Times that it is too little too late and do not go far enough to protect women. After 15 years of harm they do not say much different to what was advised in 2003.

NICE Draft guidelines NICE (1) Here is a link to the members of the NICE team responsible for putting together the guidelines.

September 21: Oxford publish a paper that blames mesh pain on women suffering anxiety about mesh issues.

September 16: Dubai Health Minister withdraws transvaginal mesh

September 12: Chief Medical Officer for Scotland Catherine Calderwood puts out a statement on mesh suspension.

Scottish mesh suspension Sep 18

September 12: All medical trials should be logged onto a new European tracking system. Along with sponsors. Pending trials should be logged too. The SIMS mesh mini sling trial at Aberdeen University is not on it.

September 6: The Scotsman reports that Eileen Baxter, 75, dies of multiple organ failure, sepsis, perforation of her bowel from an abdominal prolapse mesh, the one surgeons say is safe to use. Vaginally inserted prolapse mesh was banned in December 2017 because NICE guidelines say  the risks are too high. Yet it is the same polypropylene plastic mesh implant, supporting the same organs, sitting in the same vaginal vault once implanted. All prolapse mesh must be banned.

August 22: NHS consultation on how women with prolapse or incontinence should be treated in the future.

August 21: Scottish Government  are called to uphold the mesh suspension amid criticism for  allowing changes to an “independent” report into the plastic implants, made to downplay mesh risk.

July 27: Wales and N Ireland suspend mesh which means a UK wide suspension until NICE guidelines are out in April 2019.

July 24  Vaginal mesh is suspended in Southern Ireland 

July 23: NHS  England sends out advice to hospital medical directors and surgeons on the mesh suspension in three documents.

SUSPENSION  Medical Director and surgeon recommendations.

Mesh Suspension Medical Directors Appendix

Mesh suspension  Medical Director covering Letter

July 17: BSUG publishes its audit from 2014. It took four years to come up with a dataset that is short term, only asks one question, does not capture pain, mesh erosion, constant urinary tract infections and is thus seriously flawed.

July 12: A new newsletter is published by Canadian surgeon Robert Bendavid, outlining the risks of Hernia Mesh

July 11: The British Pain Society put out a statement on the effect on women of suffering mesh implant pain. British Pain Society press release

July 10: Sky News break the news that mesh for incontinence is suspended in hospitals across England after Government safety team found it causes life changing and life threatening injuries.

July 5: NICE guidelines into incontinence and prolapse have been pushed back two months from February 2019 to April 2019. The Daily Mail cover the story here. Early guidelines from 2007 are here. 

July 3 The Baroness Cumberlege Review into Mesh, Sodium Valproate and Primodos begins today in London. Follow this link for other dates around England..

June 18-24 World Continence Week. Here at Sling The Mesh our message is loud and clear. Please tell your friends, mums, partners, sisters, aunties and work colleagues to seek treatment. BUT  please do not be too quick to go under the knife for a solution. Try physiotherapy or specially designed intimate trainers to restore the core before considering surgery and fully research the risks of mesh implants also known as tape, slings, bands, TVT, TVTO or TOT. To find out more visit our Sling The Mesh Natural Solutions Facebook page.

Don’t be afraid of star jumps. Seek treatment for incontinence but choose natural solutions over surgery.

June 12: Canadian professor says large scale studies needed into the link between surgical mesh and auto immune diseases.

June 7: Plastic Magazine for Europe reports there is no such thing as a medical grade polymer. Manufacturers decide for themselves. A bit like marking your own exam papers.

June 1: Milestone for Scottish campaigners as mesh manufacturers fail in their bid to  get mesh court cases thrown out.

May 21: Australia bring out new patient info leaflets putting mesh surgery as the final option. They say mesh can often not be fully removed,  can cause mental and emotional distress, pain is difficult to treat and women can lose their sex lives. Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare say there needs to be better data collection surrounding mesh problems and better pre operative information for women.

May 18: Cambs Times wins the Making A Difference Award for Sling The Mesh campaign.

May 17 Guardian journalist Hannah Devlin wins Science Writer of the Year award for her story about 1 in 15 vaginal meshes need  removing because of complications.

May 14 CBS 60 Minutes releases a documentary showing plastic surgical mesh should never be implanted into humans because it’s unstable material.

May 13 Male mesh slings are trialled in the UK for  cancer patients suffering SUI after a prostatectomy. Previous research says they only work for 6 in 10 men.  Sling The Mesh says men, who have already suffered the emotional trauma of cancer, and a prostatectomy should not be then exposed to the risk of a mesh implant which can cause life altering, chronic pain..

May 11: Mesh removal surgeon Surgeon Suzy Elneil wins a BBC One Show Healthcare award

May 10 Seven questions on pelvic and hernia mesh to Government from Lord Phillip Hunt 

May 1 Global Mesh Awareness Day.

April 19 Emma Hardy MP leads a three hour debate on surgical mesh in the House of Commons main chamber..

April 17 The Government release its mesh audit and says it is “experimental” data. What does this mean?!

In terms of data analysis,  the term experimental  means based on untested ideas or techniques. In other words they did not validate the data. This is  done by taking a subset of patients and checking the digital with their medical notes to assess the error rate – this could have also generated answers to many other questions.

MP Owen Smith says half of women who need help end up at outpatient clinics suffering complications. and a third end up in trauma clinics. 

An overview of the findings are in this report by Professor Carl Heneghan of Oxford University.

March 28 Australian senate inquiry presents its report. Senator Derryn Hinch said: “This is one of the greatest medical scandals of our history.

“Mesh is a torture device. Women have suffered a physical and  mental breakdown from mesh. Tragically, painfully, dangerously.” mesh destroys the life of women, their partners and families.

“One women said I  can’t believe I went for minor day surgery and am now disabled.” The full copy of what was said is here in this link.

Sling The Mesh reaction to the Australian senate inquiry:

Kath Sansom of Sling The Mesh, whose UK group has more than 5,800 members, said:  “What medics, ministers and new patients considering a mesh implant must realise is this – even if a person has had a successful outcome with no complications it is only good for now. There is no guarantee that it will be good for their lifetime.

“The plastic polypropylene material can go brittle, shrink, twist and curl at the edges after months or even years. It is this that cuts into nerves, tissues, slices into organs and cuts through vaginal walls. It leaches toxins and can cause auto immune problems like fibromyalgia.

“No amount of surgeon skill can compensate for this. It is for this reason that all mesh should be banned.”

March 23 Sling The Mesh releases a documentary made by University media student journalists

March 8 An interesting set of answers recorded in Hansard to 8 questions on mesh by MP Emma Hardy.

March 1 The 4 corners of the UK are represented in a meeting with Lord James O’Shaughnessy at the Dept of Health. Lord O’Shaugnessy promises to get to the bottom and the real picture of the mesh implant disaster.

Feb 22 House of Lords debate Govt review into  three women’s health disasters of Primodos, valproate and mesh implants.

Sling The Mesh says all women who have had mesh are a ticking time bomb. It can take yeas for problems to cut in. One women on our group had it slice through her urethra after 18 years. Average time for problems to begin is three to four years after implantation. Jeremy Hunt says the review will not go into the science of mesh yet this is where the problem lies. Most studies do not use quality of life questionnaires that pick up the devastation of pain, lost sex lives or constant urinary infections (cysitits) . Studies concentrate on if the mesh has “cured” the problem of prolapse or incontinence.

Many studies are short term or they compare mesh to mesh – so of course mesh will come out as a favourable option! Trials should compare mesh to the old fashioned natural tissue repairs.

Additionally many trials have low numbers. One about to be published looks at the outcomes of just 52 women. For our own survey see here

Feb 21 The Government announce a review into three women’s health scandals, mesh, Primodos and valproate, over seen by Baroness Cumberlege. “We are delighted that the Government has announced a review into Mesh, Primodos and Valproate. but also deeply saddened that so many women’s and families lives have been shattered by medical devices and drugs that were never tested on humans before being released en masse to women globally. We were the human guinea pigs. These are three huge women’s health disasters. The people who benefited most were the share holders and big CEOs.” 

MP Emma Hardy said in the House: “It’s not just about the training I believe the product itself that is faulty.” Sling The Mesh and campaigners globally agree.

Sling the Mesh founder Kath Sansom said: “If a woman has had a good outcome it is only “for now ” Any woman who has had mesh is a ticking time bomb as the product can shrink or twist years down the line. No amount of surgeon training can counteract that”

“It is wrong that women have had to fight for YEARS to get their voices heard, often being dismissed as mad, hysterical or a minority suffering.  Had men been hurt by drugs or implants on this scale there would be an outcry. Instead we have been left to suffer in silence. Every woman affected by Primodos, Valproate or mesh implants have suffered personal tragedies that can never be compensated for.”

OWEN SMITH – Commenting on the news, Chair of the APPG on Surgical Mesh Implants, Owen Smith,  said:“I am delighted that the government has listened to our concerns about the safety of mesh devices and has agreed to conduct this review. Lessons must be learned from the awful complications many women have experienced since undergoing mesh surgery and proper processes must be put in place to stop this happening in the future.

“The mesh scandal shows what can go wrong when devices are aggressively marketed to doctors and then used in patients for whom they were unsuited or unnecessary. Mesh devices should be seen against that history of medicalisation and miss-selling and should be subject to the most stringent clinical trials before being deployed in surgery.

“The news of a prospective registry is also hugely welcome, and is one of the key things we’ve been asking for. I’m pleased that the government has listened and this registry, together with the recently announced retrospective audit currently being undertaken, will provide us with a better understanding of problems related to mesh.”

“It is a shame however that NICE is still unable or unwilling to bring forward its review into the safety and efficacy of Mesh and that the Government will not suspend Mesh until the reviews have been undertaken, as has happened in New Zealand.”

Feb 14 Researchers announce a new mesh BUT it still uses a plastic base of POLYeurethane, which is plastic.

So far it has only been tested on  chicken embryos. It will add oestrogen, known to increase risk of endometrial cancer. Following the PIP breast implant scandal, this study said polyeurethane should not be in the body: “We recommend research to find a non-toxic, non-biodegradable synthetic material as an alternative to polyurethane”.

Commenting on the announcement that University of Sheffield has developed a new polyurethane mesh, Chair of the APPG on Surgical Mesh Implants, Owen Smith MP said: “Whilst I welcome new interventions to treat stress urinary incontinence and prolapse, I would urge great caution over the use of synthetic materials to treat these conditions. It is crucial that lessons are learnt from the use of polypropylene mesh and the life-changing complications women have experienced since undergoing surgery. This new material must undergo rigorous and strict clinical trials and should only be used if such complications can be ruled out.”

Feb 6 Women from across Britain join a 100 years of Votes for Women rally outside Parliament followed by a question in the House of Lords asked by Lord Phillip Hunt calling for a mesh suspension.

Jan 30 Ministers agree  a full audit into mesh complications in England. This needs rolling out to the whole of the UK. Sky report 

Jan 18 Surgeon Society BAUS update its website to give a full over view of ALL the latest information on mesh risks.

The All Party Parliamentary Group is on January 30.

Oxford Hospitals admit there have been “errors made in the national gynaecological community” in the use of mesh.

Inappropriate surgery, with poor counselling and consent,  poor surgery performed by surgeons who have been inadequately trained in the field,  no mandatory reporting of complications when they occur and poor audit of outcomes.

2017 NEWS

Dec 15: NICE imposes back door ban on vaginal prolapse mesh but no new guidance on incontinence mesh which is the most common pelvic mesh operation in the UK.

Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Surgical Mesh Implants, Owen Smith MP said:

“I’m pleased that NICE have listened to women, looked at the emerging evidence and changed their mind about the risk associated with use of Mesh in treating prolapse, but they should have gone further and followed the example set by New Zealand this week in banning mesh altogether for pelvic operations. NICE now need to take notice of that decision and speed up their guidelines on use of Mesh to treat incontinence. It just isn’t reasonable of them to say they can’t produce that guideline for another 18 months.”

Dec 12, 2017: New Zealand is first country in world to ban pelvic mesh. Read stories on Sky and The Independent

Dec 7, 2017: Professor Carl Heneghan and the BMJ reveal mesh implants have been used in patients without clinical trials.

Nov 30, 2017 Chrissy dies 4 years after a TVT mesh implant for mild stress incontinence. She suffered recurrent urinary tract infections caused by the plastic device . She became resistant to antibiotics used to treat it and died of sepsis.

November 27 NICE to recommend  vaginal mesh to fix prolapse to only be used in research. We say this is surgeon code for do not use. Read the BBC report here:

November 21, 2017: All Party Parliamentary Group think tank on mesh  meet.

 October 18, 2017 Westminster Hall parliamentary debate. The Labour Party calls for immediate suspension of vaginal mesh. MPs will debate the controversial health scandal in Westminster  reports The Guardian.

September 30, 2017: Sling The Mesh features in emotional Canadian TV documentary that asks how safe is mesh? Watch from 12.0 for MP Owen Smith

September 28, 2017: Scottish Parliament Public Petitions committee. Women were “window dressing” for a whitewash report. Surgeon calls for public inquiry and full audit into mesh safety..

September 23, 2017. Landmark report shows 9.8% women suffer incontinence mesh complications in the UK.

September 2017: Sling The Mesh joins Scottish Mesh Survivors to speak at the Australian senate inquiry into pelvic mesh implants.

September 2017: All Party Parliamentary Group APPG into mesh is launched with Owen Smith as chair and Paul Masterson as co chair and 16 other MPs. Surgeon Suzy Elneil and Sling The Mesh founder Kath Sansom are formal advisors.

July 2017 Parliamentary lobby for Sling The Mesh : MP Owen Smith said of the NHS England Mesh Review :  “Mesh injured women will be deeply disappointed by the outcomes of the final  NHS England Review, which seems to have made little progress since its interim report came out over a year ago.

This was an opportunity for the NHS to take a lead and recommend a pause in the use of mesh until we know precisely how many women have been adversely affected by the product. Instead, they appear content to allow mesh to be widely used despite growing, international concerns about its potential ill effects.

The only people pleased with this report will be the medical device companies who marketed mesh so diligently and who now fear mass litigation. Many companies have already taken their mesh

products off the market, that alone should tell us something is not right with these devices.”

Read our press statement here: July 25, 2017: Sling the Mesh statement following English working group report into mesh

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July 18, 2017: A Parliamentary lobby was standing room only when MPs heard harrowing stories of how mesh has changed women’s lives  beyond recognition.

MP Owen Smith leads a Parliamentary debate into the controversial operation in September. He will also chair an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) into mesh.

Senior doctors called for a public inquiry saying it is as big as the thalidomide scandal – but with mesh you cannot see the injuries. Read the story from The Guardian and Cambs Times.

Owen Smith MP talks on BBC Good Morning Ulster calling for suspension of mesh implants to tie in with Scotland. Listen at 2:16.

Hernia mesh and vaginal mesh on the BBC Victoria Derbyshire Show. Monday 2 July 2017

Sling The Mesh campaigning to protect mums of the future.

Surgical mesh is made of polypropylene plastic which can shrink, twist, degrade and cut / erode into nearby tissues and organs causing chronic pain.

It is popular as it is a cheap and quick fix and takes less surgical skill than traditional, native tissue repairs.

It is used to treat incontinence, prolapse and hernias. It is a real fear that if surgeons continue to rely on mesh, traditional surgical skills will die out.

Research carried out by medics at Leicester, Newcastle and Ireland says surgeons are more likely to give women mesh implants because they don’t have the skills to do the tried and tested old fashioned / traditional repairs known as Burch or autologous slings. Read the review here .

Uro Today reports that “The future of surgical care depends on the research we do now. If we don`t address the current shortfalls catastrophic problems like falsified research outcome and bad quality implants and surgical techniques will destroy patients faith and make good techniques disappear.”

If natural repairs fail patient is back to square one. If mesh fails it is a ruined life.

Sling The Mesh campaign is calling for: 

A full investigation and audit to be carried out into how many women have been adversely affected by vaginal mesh implants and tapes.

Also:

A mandatory independent National Register for all new medical devices so patients are  tracked for their lifetime.and problems and trends are picked up immediately.

Physiotherapy to be offered as standard for all new mums after giving birth.

And

Ensure databases take into account Patient Recorded Outcome Measures

 

Our aims

Mesh implants are maiming women globally.

Women are calling for an operation with life-changing risks to be banned. If the NHS will not stop mesh altogether then we say it must be  pushed to the third and final option only after a non mesh surgery has failed.

In July 2018 incontinence mesh tapes were suspended across the UK pending the outcome of an independent safety review by  Baroness Julia Cumberlege.

In December 2017 vaginal prolapse mesh was banned.

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In May 2017,  Scottish health secretary Shona Robison called for an independent expert to review an independent mesh safety report amid claims that the risks of mesh had been down-played The BBC reports here.

The English Mesh review came out in July 2017. It has been called a whitewash for missing out essential data and not looking at either the safety of the mesh or the way it is implanted.

Sling The Mesh campaign is  headed by regional newspaper journalist Kath Sansom, who had the mesh implant operation on the NHS in March 2015,  to fix problems caused by childbirth.

Following the 20 minute operation she was in agony with pains in her legs, feet and groin, which left her struggling to walk far. She was unable to use tampons due to severe internal burning and spasms caused by the plastic mesh. She has since had the implant removed by a specialist surgeon. Within a week the burning and spasms went alongside most of the leg and foot pain.

Social media has been the key to mesh injured women linking up globally.

Kath discovered other support groups in the UK, America, Australia and Canada and found Facebook groups  with  thousands globally suffering.

Angry at realising she was unwittingly involved in a massive women’s medical disaster, Kath set up Sling The Mesh campaign. It was officially launched In June 2015, 10 weeks after her mesh implant operation.

Sling The Mesh Facebook group now has more than 7,200 members. For  other groups across the world see bottom of page for details.  In England alone, 126,000 mesh tape and mesh patches, have been used in the last 10 years.

Kath Sansom

The Mesh implants and tapes are used to fix incontinence or prolapse, often caused by natural childbirth. High impact training, which puts pressure on the pelvic floor, can also trigger problems.

Incontinence is a common problem for high performing athletes. Some suffer from the distressing condition of incontinence or prolapse due to joint hypermobility syndrome, others for no apparent reason, from a  young age.

Kath said:: “There are women in wheelchairs or walking with sticks because of this operation. Others with life-altering chronic pain, on cocktails of high dose medication. Many can no longer work, marriages have broken down and all for a 20 minute, day case operation that was supposed to improve their quality of life.

Lost sex lives

One in seven women in my campaign have lost their sex lives where the mesh has either cut into or inflamed their sensitive tissue. It becomes too painful to try to have personal relationships. Women say they feel as if they have been sexually neutered.

“Overnight I went from a super fit mum of teenagers who did boxing training twice a week, high board diving, swimming, mountain biking and dancing at gigs, to a physical wreck who could just about walk my dog round the park.”

Mesh kits

A TVT mesh kit for incontinence

For the incontinence operation a surgeon implants a mesh tape sling.

It is known as a TVT,  TVTO or TOT which stands for tension free vaginal tape.

It can also be called a transvaginal mesh (TVM) or a mid urethral sling (MUS). It is inserted blindly using a set of hooks known as trocars.

For pelvic organ prolapse, surgeons insert a patch of mesh with arm-like pieces to attach it inside a woman’s body. Again using hooks. Vaginally placed prolapse mesh was effectively banned in December 21017 but the same plastic polypropylene material is still being implanted abdominally to support he same prolapse organs.

In the case of SUI mesh it is the only type of surgery we  know of that is performed “blind”. Other operations are performed open where a surgeon can see what they are doing, or using key hole techniques and a camera to guide them.

A pelvic organ prolapse mesh kit

Traditional surgery

Traditional surgical fixes for incontinence take up to three hours followed by three to four nights in hospital.

One is called the Burch colposuspension, which is like a hitch and stitch.

Mesh implant surgery – patients are not fully informed of the risks.

The other is an autologous sling, which uses muscle from the stomach wall to make a natural sling.

The incontinence mesh operations take 20 minutes as a day case procedure.The money-saving motivation of mesh is real.

Scotland

Campaigning by Scottish mums Olive McIlroy and Elaine Holmes, along with journalist Marion Scott, led to former Scottish Health Minister Alex Neill calling for a suspension of mesh implants in June 2014.

Scottish Mesh Survivors website

However, after a three year review, a final report was released on March 27, 2017, which says the suspension is lifted because it claims the implants are safe to use under guidance.

The review’s chairman, a clinician and two patient reps resigned amid whitewash claims.

Whitewash:

Scottish campaigners have accused the independent review of being a whitewash

Missing chapter

The Scottish Independent Review was published amid claims of a whitewash because a whole chapter on risks of this operation was omitted.

Plastic can shrink

No information was included on how the plastic polypropylene material can shrink, twist or degrade and leach toxins.

High risk

No mention was made of how prolapse mesh has been upgraded to a higher risk device in America nor a report included by the FDA – America’s health watchdog body – which says the trocars (hooks) to implant the mesh can cause injuries for up to 40% of women having prolapse mesh or 30% of women having mesh for incontinence. Read the report here.

On campaign groups globally we see women go from healthy lives to disabled – all because they were offered a quick fix using mesh.

Guesswork surgery

No mention was made in the Scottish Independent Review that this is the ONLY surgery performed blind. The plastic mesh tape sling is inserted by guesswork, a bit like touch typing.

Clean contaminated field

There was no mention in the review that the plastic is inserted through the clean, contaminated, surgical field of the vagina.  That means an area of good bacteria is invaded by a foreign body – a piece of plastic – where it can harbour bacteria causing lifelong urinary infections.

Lies, damn lies and statistics

The review does not explain the statistics used in a report published in the Lancet in 2016.

Disraeli: “There are lies, damned lies and there are statistics.”

The report claims mesh is low risk BUT it uses Hospital Episode Statistics, known as HES data. If a woman presents with a mesh complication to her GP but does not go to hospital for it then she is not included in the HES data. Women given antibiotics for constant water infections or given high doses of pain killers but not referred to hospital, for example, will not be included in the HES.

That means the figures of risk will be VASTLY under reported. Read the flawed study here

Bigger disaster since thalidomide

The mesh has caused so many health problems in Australia that some of the products were de-registered there in November 2014.

Senator Derryn Hinch is fighting vaginal mesh implants calling them the worst medical disaster for women since Thalidomide.

The scandal in the 50s and 60s saw babies born with deformed limbs after women were prescribed Thalidomide as a morning sickness drug with devastating complications.

America

In the USA more than 100,000 lawsuits have been filed from women who have suffered permanent disabilities .

Leading American surgeon Tom Margolis felt so strongly about the TVT product that he wrote to Scottish Parliament urging them to ban the operation, saying the use of the mesh : “Must stop immediately. The complications from this defective surgical theory and defective material far outweigh the potential benefits.”Read the letter:

Orange netting as mesh implant

The TVT mesh is one of many medical devices, including metal on metal hip implants and the disastrous PIP breast implants that used mattress grade silicone, that campaigners say are too easily approved for use.

The Times report

In January 2015, a team of undercover scientists took a piece of fruit netting, used to package oranges, to a regulatory body in Austria and were on the brink of getting a CE Kitemark approval for it, to prove how lax the system is.

Read the full report in The Times.

Plastic

Kath, whose girls are 14 and 20, decided to have a TVT mesh bladder sling after suffering what many mums are left with after childbirth – mild stress urinary incontinence. She was told it was a minimally invasive, relatively low risk, operation taking less than half an hour.

However, she has since found out what she thought was a body-friendly sling is made from polypropylene plastic mesh – the same material used to make drinks bottles .

Permanent implant

She said: “The mesh is harsh with rough edges as sharp as a razor blade and feels more like the sort of material you would find on a building site not the type of thing to be put near the most delicate area in a woman’s body.”

Removing mesh is like trying to get chewing gum out of matted hair.

Once inserted the mesh takes about four to six weeks to knit into the tissues.

After that it is like trying to get chewing gum out of matted hair.

Unlike other implants, that are relatively easy to be removed if there are problems, vaginal mesh is designed to be permanent. Surgeons can put it in but those same surgeons cannot take it out if a woman presents with complications.

Living a new normal

There are only a few surgeons in the world who can successfully remove it. Kath had her mesh sling removed by Natalia Price in Oxford in October 2015 and although quality of life has improved she is adjusting to a new normal.

She can no longer put impact on her legs. Even the shortest run, skip or jump will put her on pain medication for days. Before mesh she planned to cycle Snowdon’s gruelling Marin Trail. Now she can cycle for about 10 minutes on flat ground before leg pain kicks in.

Many mesh injured women survive on a cocktail of pain killers.

“I was not told that I may suffer horrible leg and pelvic pains or that I would feel like I was being cut by cheese wire inside my body.

“I was not told that this was a permanent device. Some women are on pain killers for life, suffer bloating from the inflammation and go on to develop auto immune diseases like fibromyalgia.

“There are online support forums across the globe with tales of women suffering and crying out for help. When it goes wrong it goes spectacularly wrong and it is not a risk worth taking.

“Few surgeons give women fully informed consent; risks are not properly explained,” she said. “In the world of mesh removals I’ve had a good recovery compared to many others, but even my health has been compromised. None of us ever go back to what we were.”

Human guinea pigs

Woman are the human guinea pigs for a product that was launched on the market in 1996 having only been tested in a few dogs, sheep and rabbits, who cannot speak of crippling pain or lost sex lives.

Women are human guinea pigs. Image: Michelle Deyna-Hayward.

Those who support mesh say it is one of the most studied operations in the world.

However, most of those studies are either short term or are run by biased medics, who have previously or still have financial interests within the medical device industry.

Alternatively, they use flawed statistics such as Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

The HES only record if a woman has been treated for her complications in hospital and does not take into account women suffering pain going back and forth to their GP.

Bias

Bias in medical studies unravelled itself in the 2015 Cochrane Review into mesh which looked at 81 different reports.

Out of those 81 , only two were at a low risk of bias. A total of 13 were high risk and the other 66 were unclear.

Read more about the mesh Cochrane Review

Jeremy Vine Show

Sling The Mesh featured on The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 for the lunchtime medical slot which was guest hosted by BBC media editor, Amol Rajan, and GP Sarah Jarvis. Monday January 23, 2017 at 1pm.  Listen here

Sky News

When the campaign launched in 2015 it was featured on Sky News with reporter Charlotte Lomas-Farley.

Sling The Mesh logo with thanks to artist Michelle Deyna- Hayward.

MESH PROBLEMS ARE GLOBAL

AMERICA Dr Raz explains why he will not use mesh implants.

AUSTRALIA Senator Derryn Hinch backs campaigners who are calling for the surgery to stop.

BELGIUM Women have joined forces to fight mesh implants 

CANADA Campaigners are desperate for their voices to be head amid a backdrop of legal cases suing for being maimed.

DENMARK  Doctors advised to call in Danish women who received synthetic mesh implants 

FINLAND Women in a Facebook support group.

ISRAEL  The legal cases are ongoing in Israel.

NEW ZEALAND  Just one of many women suffering after a mesh implant.

NORTHERN IRELAND  Women are fighting to be transferred to England for mesh removal with a specialist who can remove mesh implants if they have complications because nobody in Ireland can do it. So far nobody is listening. to them.

SCOTLAND The eyes of the world are on Scotland where politically they are leading the way by being the first to take the fight to Parliament. An independent review reinstated mesh implants in March 2017 amid claims of a whitewash. Campaigners are now looking into launching a legal challenge.

TO FIND ALL THE GLOBAL MESH SUPPORT GROUPS FOLLOW THIS LINK TO THE PINNED POST ON SLING THE MESH ON FACEBOOK

 

 

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