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Kath Sansom set up Sling The Mesh in 2015
Added on 20 December 2023 Blogs

Pessaries for prolapse

TOPSY study into pessaries for prolapse could change practice in the UK and beyond, according to one of the authors.

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Sling The Mesh was set up by Kath Sansom in 2015
Added on 13 December 2023 Blogs

Men’s mesh slings have devastating complications

Mesh slings made of the same polypropylene plastic as suspended women’s slings have been implanted into nearly 200 UK men suffering incontinence after prostate cancer.

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Tweets by MeshCampaign

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Mesh implants are used in operations to treat incontinence, prolapse, hernia, rectopexy and some mastectomy repairs after breast cancer.

😱 More outrageous comments made to members of our 😱 More outrageous comments made to members of our Facebook support group by their doctors.

➡️ Scroll right to see them all.

#medicalgaslighting #medicalmisogyny #womenshealth #patientsafety
❤️💙BREAKING NEWS: More progress for the campaign. ❤️💙BREAKING NEWS: More progress for the campaign. MPs, Sharon Hodgson and Sir Julian Lewis raised questions in the House of Commons today about financial redress for women harmed by pelvic mesh. 

The Leader of the House recognised the profound impact on women and their families, frustration, and also concerns that the Government has yet to respond to the Hughes Report - and he called for ministers to meet with politicians who advocate for our mesh community to work out what is causing the delay.

Both MPs urged their Parliamentary colleagues to watch the MAZE mesh documentary to understand the pelvic mesh scandal.

The 15-minute documentary can be seen on You Tube @maze.docs 

#mesh #pelvicmesh #womenshealth #medicalmisogyny
A great event and thank you to everyone who attend A great event and thank you to everyone who attended tonight to support the Parliamentary screening of the mesh documentary - so many inspiring ideas to help push forward compensation for women harmed by pelvic mesh. 

Huge thanks to @maze.docs whose You Tube film has reached 700,000 viewers globally. 

Check out their channel to watch the 15 minute film which exposes the flimsy science, the flawed regulation system and the medical misogyny that has underpin the Mesh scandal. 

#pelvicmesh #firstdonoharm
❤️💙 Another trip to London to advocate for the mes ❤️💙 Another trip to London to advocate for the mesh injured community in Parliament.

#mesh #pelvicmesh #hernia #prolapse #rectopexy
😱🥼Women with autoimmune conditions are 74% more li 😱🥼Women with autoimmune conditions are 74% more likely than men to be told their symptoms are psychological or psychosomatic, and face much longer waits for a diagnosis and treatment, a new study suggests.

Around one in 10 people globally are affected by autoimmune conditions, which can cause a range of health issues including fatigue, muscle pain and rashes.

But research by the University of Cambridge and University of East Anglia suggests a stark gender divide when it comes to how signs of the conditions are handled by doctors.

Women are more likely to have their conditions wrongly attributed to psychiatric causes, more likely to have symptoms misdiagnosed as psychosomatic, and more likely to experience delays in getting a diagnosis, according to the study.

The study, led by Melanie Sloan, is published in The Lancet eClinicalMedicine.

#autoimmunedisease #medicalmisogyny #medicalgaslighting #womenshealth #patientsafety
😱 Mesh-injured patients are ignored, dismissed and 😱 Mesh-injured patients are ignored, dismissed and blamed. Our Medical Gaslighting Dismissive Files reveal some of the most outrageous comments reported by our members in the Facebook support group.

➡️ Scroll right to see more.

#medicalgaslighting #medicalmisogyny #womenshealth #gaslighting #firstdonoharm #patientsafety #pelvicmesh #vaginalmesh
🚨 Flimsy science lies at the heart of the pelvic m 🚨 Flimsy science lies at the heart of the pelvic mesh scandal. Weak studies with significant limitations have been used to market mesh sling procedures to women and their doctors.

👇📊⚠️Two of those studies are:

🔍 Nilsson (2013) implanted 90 women with a mesh bladder sling, but only 58 were followed up. and the only focused on the fix and not the new onset of complications. Two of the study authors were paid consultants for Johnson & Johnson, the mesh manufacturer.

🔍 Lebar (2025) implanted 539 women, yet only 135 were followed up, meaning around 75% were lost to follow-up. That's a massive gap that introduces serious bias into the reported outcomes.

📊 Both studies focus primarily on whether the mesh sling "worked" for its intended purpose.

❓ But they weren’t robustly tracking the new and devastating health complications that can emerge months or even years after implantation.

💔 Behind every statistic is a woman living with the consequences.

📢 Patient safety depends on transparent, independent research and honest reporting of long-term outcomes. Including all of the unintended and unexpected outcomes.

#SlingTheMesh #PatientSafety #MedicalDevices #MeshInjury #MedicalMisogyny #WomensHealth #EvidenceBasedMedicine #MeshComplications #ListenToWomen #InformedConsent #firstdonoharm
😱More shocking examples from our Medical Gaslighti 😱More shocking examples from our Medical Gaslighting Dismissive Files of real things said to members of our Facebook support group by healthcare professionals.

Medical gaslighting and medical misogyny are real problems in mesh groups around the world. Healthcare professionals often deny that a woman is experiencing complications, either blaming it on something else or dismissing and undermining someone desperately seeking help. 

The lack of compassionate care is a hallmark not only of the mesh scandal, but sadly of many women's health issues more broadly.

#slingthemesh #mesh #medicalgaslighting #medicalmisogyny #patientsafety #womenshealth
😱Medical gaslighting is a huge issue for people in 😱Medical gaslighting is a huge issue for people injured by surgical #mesh, affecting both women and men. 

➡️➡️ Swipe right to read more.

To suffer avoidable harm and then face disbelief, dismissal, or ridicule from the very professionals you turn to for help is a profound betrayal of trust.

These are just a few of the comments our Facebook support group members have received from their doctors and form our three-part Dismissive Files series. You can see more medical gaslighting comments on previous posts on our Instagram channel or on our Sling The Mesh YouTube channel.

📌 Surgical mesh is a polypropylene plastic medical device used to strengthen weak tissues in operations to fix hernias, prolapse, bladder leaks, some repairs after mastectomy and some cosmetic breast surgeries.

#medicalgaslighting #medicalmisogyny #womenshealth #menshealth #patientsafety #firstdonoharm #slingthemesh
✨ Thank you to everyone who has started following ✨ Thank you to everyone who has started following since we were featured by @maze.docs 💙

Did you know? Surgical mesh is a polypropylene plastic medical device used to strengthen weakened tissue during procedures for: 
🔹 Bladder leaks (stress incontinence) 
🔹 Pelvic organ prolapse 
🔹 Hernias 
🔹 Breast surgeries, including post-mastectomy reconstruction and some cosmetic procedures

📚 Want to learn more? Visit our website via the link in our bio 🔗

💬 Keep asking questions, sharing your experiences, and joining the conversation. We're here to help and raise awareness. ❤️

#slingthemesh #patientsafety #firstdonoharm #sui #pop #hernia #menopause #childbirth #womenshealth #menshealth
🩺🥼In our latest blog we look at the cost of mesh r 🩺🥼In our latest blog we look at the cost of mesh removals and ask this important question. Do surgeons follow a recognised national mesh removal training programme so there are not variations in care across the nine specialist mesh centres?

The answer would appear to be no.

📌2021 to 2025 there were 234 full mesh removals and 185 partial mesh removals.

📌That represents a total of 419 mesh removal procedures.

📌The average mesh removal in 2026 is £16,000.

📌Based on that, mesh removal has cost the NHS more than £6.7 million in 5 years.

📌That does not include additional costs of pain management, mental health support, ongoing medication, follow-up care, or repeat treatments. It also excludes the wider economic impact, including the cost to the benefits system when women have been forced to leave work or reduce their hours due to mesh-related complications.

➡️➡️ Head to our website and visit the blog section to read the story in full.

#slingthemessh #pelvicmesh #meshremoval #patientsafety #firstdonoharm
😱 More medical gaslighting and #medicalmisogyny fr 😱 More medical gaslighting and #medicalmisogyny from our Dismissive Files. Real things said to members of our support group by health care 'professionals'.

➡️ Scroll right to see more.
Medical gaslighting and #medicalmisogyny has been Medical gaslighting and #medicalmisogyny has been a hallmark of the mesh scandal for decades with outrageous comments made by healthcare professionals to our members.

Here are just some of the comments posted into the support group. Shared with permission.

➡️ Scroll right to see more.

#slingthemesh #firstdonoharm
💔 Our thoughts are with the family and friends of 💔 Our thoughts are with the family and friends of French actor/ director Arnaud Dennis who could no longer with live with the unbearable pain and autoimmune diseases following hernia mesh surgery in 2023.

The 43 year old likened his life to being in the terminal phase of cancer.

He died today in a Belgium euthanasia clinic.

Arnaud became a passionate advocate for the hernia mesh community. We chatted in messages over the last year and he was determined to raise awareness and leave a lasting legacy.

Rest in peace Arnaud.

#hernia #mesh #patientsafety
😱Here are more of the shocking comments doctors ha 😱Here are more of the shocking comments doctors have said to our members. 

We're sharing them for World Patient Safety Day because dismissing, belittling, or gaslighting patients is not just poor practice. It is a patient safety issue.

The impact of medical gaslighting includes frustration, confusion, an appalling impact on mental health, worsening conditions and avoidable suffering.

Sadly we see it al too often on #slingthemesh

#medicalmisogyny #medicalgaslighting #firstdonoharm #patientsafety
⚠️💔 Coming up in Part 2 of our Medical Gaslighting ⚠️💔 Coming up in Part 2 of our Medical Gaslighting series: more real comments reported by #SlingTheMesh members.

More gaslighting. More humiliation. More women being made to doubt their own suffering. Part 2 includes comments such as this:

⚠️ Unable to walk because of severe pelvic pain, a woman turned to her surgeon for help. His response?

"Anatomically, you look lovely."

This and more are in our second video, created for World Patient Safety Day. Hear what women were told when they sought help.

#medicalgasllighting #medicalmisogyny #patientsafety #firstdonoharm
🥼🩺 😱 Over the next 3 days, we'll be sharing some o 🥼🩺 😱 Over the next 3 days, we'll be sharing some of the worst examples of medical gaslighting reported by our members for #WorldPatientSafetyDay Some of the comments are outrageous.

🥼When doctors gaslight, conditions get left untreated. Sadly, too many mesh injured patients are told their pain is stress, their symptoms are anxiety, it's blamed on old health issues or told they're overreacting.

📌The result? Delayed diagnoses and patients left questioning themselves instead of getting answers.

📌 That's medical gaslighting. And it's a #patientsafety issue. Patient safety isn't just about preventing mistakes. It's also about listening. Being heard is part of safe care.

#slingthemesh #firstdonoharm @sharonhodgsonmp @mumsnet #medicalmisogyny #medicalgaslighting
🗣️🗣️ NEW HERNIA MESH PAPER: A new peer-reviewed sc 🗣️🗣️ NEW HERNIA MESH PAPER: A new peer-reviewed scientific paper recognises something we have been saying for years: Patients are part of the evidence. Lived experience matters.

For too long, people reporting chronic pain after hernia mesh surgery have been dismissed, ignored, or told their symptoms are psychological and probably due to anxiety or depression.

This paper from France acknowledges the importance of listening to expert patients who live with the consequences every day - and how their stories should be part of the evidence base used to calculate risk vs benefit.

The paper also raises serious questions about underreporting.

More than 200,000 inguinal hernia repairs are performed annually in France, yet fewer than 30 serious adverse events per year were officially recorded between 2020 and 2024.

The paper highlights what we have been saying for years - there is a black hole of missing data.

To read the full paper head to the blog section of our website.

#slingthemesh #hernia #mesh #inguinal #patientsafety #firstdonoharm
❤️💙 Our second question this week was raised in Pa ❤️💙 Our second question this week was raised in Parliament thanks to MP Sharon Hodgson, co-chair of the First Do No Harm All Party Parliamentary Group. 

Next Thursday it’s World Patient Safety Day and in the light of this, Sharon called for a debate asking when will the government commit to compensation as outlined in the Hughes report.

Women have had their concerns and dismissed for too long, Sharon said. 

The minister has committed to finding out and giving a reply ❤️
💙❤️ Grateful to MP Sharon Hodgson for continuing t 💙❤️ Grateful to MP Sharon Hodgson for continuing to put pressure on the government for compensation for women harmed by Pelvic Mesh and Sodium Valproate.
Parliament is sitting again after summer recess so Parliament is sitting again after summer recess so it’s back to work on the campaign in London. 

Today focusing on redress, Sunshine Legislation and standardised pathways of care at the mesh centres

#slingthemesh #mesh #firstdonoharm #patientsafety
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