Mesh implants are a quick fix, used by surgeons to strengthen weak tissue in operations to treat prolapse, female and male stress incontinence, hernias and some breast reconstructions following mastectomy. It is also used in some animal surgeries.

Surgical mesh is a permanent polypropylene plastic implant. It can harden, fragment, twist, to slice into nerves, tissue and organs like an internal knife. The plastic material can cause pain, infections, autoimmune diseases, UTIs, and trigger allergic reactions, including psoriasis, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, Lichen sclerosus, lupus, food allergies and intolerances.

We also have members struggling with complications from biomesh made of pig or cow’s skin.

Complications can begin immediately for some, while for others problems appear years later – like a ticking time bomb.

This makes it especially difficult to track the scale of harm.

Removing mesh implants is major, complex surgery and in some cases is impossible. Some patients improve, some are worse and others see no difference – as found in the Sling The Mesh Survey 2019.

Pelvic mesh was rushed to market using the flimsiest of evidence. It was used for almost a decade without a specific hospital implanting code so the data held by NHS vastly under estimates the thousands of women affected.

New products continue to be approved using a flawed medical device approval system known as Equivalence in Europe and the 510K system in the US. The approval system is so weak that an Oxford University professor was on the brink of getting supermarket orange netting approved as a vaginal mesh to prove the failings.

Long-term complications are not captured globally.

For good background reading this article by Jonathan Gornall describes how mesh became a four-letter word.

Key objectives

• Raising awareness of surgical mesh risk.
• Educating the public on scientific research flaws causing patient harm.
• Calling for tougher approval, regulations and oversight to improve patient safety.
• Databases to track long term harm of medical devices which can spot trends of harm.
• Campaigning for the implementation of all nine First Do No Harm key recommendations.
• Financial redress for women harmed by pelvic mesh.
• Lobbying for a UK Sunshine Payment Act to improve transparency in the health sector by forcing the pharmaceutical and medical device industry to declare money given to doctors, researchers, lobby groups, health charities, surgeon societies and teaching hospitals. This money can add bias to prescribing and affect research integrity. So far, we’ve succeeded in laying the foundations which would need detailed secondary legislation. The US system allows the public to search Drs and researchers on an open database.
• Lobbing government for mandatory reporting of adverse events to the MHRA Yellow Card. It is currently voluntary. Two thirds of mesh complications were not logged as a result.
• Lobbying government to #raisethelimit for Product Liability legal cases from the current 10 years to at least 20 years to tie in with the rest of Europe.

Get in touch: slingthemesh@gmail.com

Latest from Sling The Mesh

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  New pelvic mesh removal study reveals the hidden toll of women’s pain
  A new study from one of the UK’s largest mesh complication centres shows more than half of women suffering pelvic mesh pain do not show any signs that there is anything wrong with their implant. The study, which lays bare the scale and complexity of suffering caused by pelvic mesh implants, shows that over a five-year period (2018–2023), 785 women were treated […]
• 
  Disgraced surgeon used industry money to fund The Pelvic Floor Society
  A surgeon who used industry funding to set up The Pelvic Floor Society – and was key in promoting Rectopexy Mesh across the UK – was this week struck off the medical register by the GMC. Listen to this interview with BBC reporter Matthew Hill about Tony Dixon’s fall from grace. This funding reinforces our call for Sunshine Legislation in […]
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  1,000 women harmed, surgeons say 101, regulator says 4
  Data failed patient safety miserably in the mesh scandal – with huge black holes of missing or unreliable information. For example, a 2012 report produced by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) showed 1,000 women were re-admitted to hospital with complications within 30 days of bladder mesh sling surgery. This figure comes from NHS data known as Hospital […]
• 
  Global surgical mesh market hits $650 million
  The global surgical mesh industry is booming with a value of $650 million in 2024 – projected to surge past $950 million by 2030. Behind the billion-dollar glossy forecasts we’re extremely concerned over global expansion of mesh use with no long term outcome logging – leading to safety concerns for millions of unsuspecting patients. Driven by aggressive marketing, we fear traditional surgery […]
• 
  Hernia Mesh – what is the long-term safety?
  A new study published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research has added further weight to the growing body of evidence questioning the long-term safety of synthetic hernia mesh implants. The research, titled Polypropylene hernia mesh: Evidence of inflammation, oxidative stress, and degradation in human explants reveals alarming findings about the biological response to polypropylene mesh in the human body. Researchers found that mesh […]
• 
  Flimsy science is a patient safety disaster
  Many studies into surgical mesh were flawed as they didn’t log pain or complications – they merely logged if the mesh had worked. Most studies only followed up patients for a few weeks or months, yet surgical mesh can act like a ticking time bomb and take years for complications to show. The continent patient with debilitating chronic pain developing […]
• 
  Our letter to the Irish health minister – keep the ban on bladder mesh slings
  Sling the Mesh campaign and MP Sharon Hodgson have written to Irish Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, urging her to uphold the current ban on bladder mesh slings. This comes in response to growing pressure from some Irish surgeons to reintroduce the controversial devices, despite overwhelming evidence of the life-altering harm they have caused to thousands of women. We believe […]
• 
  Mesh injured women ‘still fighting for justice’ five years on from review
  Women harmed by pelvicl mesh are “still fighting for justice”, campaigners have said on the fifth anniversary of a review into the scandal. Sling the Mesh, a campaign group representing women harmed by mesh, accused governments of “dragging their feet” on implementing all the recommendations set out in the report. The review examined how the health service responded to concerns […]
• 
  Why is banned vaginal prolapse mesh still being used in India?
  Sling The Mesh is deeply concerned to see a global organisation, the International Urogynecological Association (IUGA), publishing a glowing spotlight article featuring an Indian surgeon who continues to use transvaginal mesh for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) – despite its ban in many countries due to serious and well-documented harm. In a recent IUGA article, Dr Karthik Gunasekaran describes how he […]
• 
  Ireland’s push to reinstate bladder mesh slings – a step backwards for women’s safety
  There is an aggressive drive underway in Ireland to lift the suspension on bladder mesh sling implants – a deeply concerning development for thousands of women who have suffered life-altering injuries from these devices. The campaign is being led by a high-profile surgeon with strong affiliations to leading Royal Colleges and professional institutions, both in Ireland and internationally. While professional […]
• 
  Grieving the life we lost – and the one we deserved 
  At Sling The Mesh, we often come across words that echo the deepest truths of our community. Recently, a simple graphic struck a powerful chord with our members – not because it was poetic or profound, but because it was real. For those living with mesh injuries, it wasn’t just a quote. It was a mirror to how we grieve our […]
• 
  Sling The Mesh on Good Morning Britain
  Mesh implants returned to the national spotlight as Sling the Mesh campaigners appeared on Good Morning Britain to highlight the devastating impact of surgical mesh procedures—and the urgent need for compensation and systemic reform. Campaign founder Kath Sansom was joined by Sharron Mahoney – who suffered severe autoimmune complications and chronic pain following rectopexy mesh surgery. Remarkably, Sharron’s symptoms began […]