Sling The Mesh in the news: 2018

To round off 2018, an Allergan breast implant cancer warning is issued and British plastic surgeons are advised to not use them anymore. In a year that has seen mesh hit international headlines, the question is: why do women keep being harmed? Huffington Post

The Government announces plans for better access to physiotherapy for the one in three mums who suffer incontinence after giving birth. The Guardian

As the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review continues, evidence from all parties is published online.

UK journalists are shocked at the lack of transparency in medical device regulation and the suffering caused by implants. The Guardian

Lawyer says he is not surprised at the medical device scandal. Compensation payouts are a drop in the ocean compared to £76 billion profits made by Johnson & Johnson. St Petersburg Injury Law News

In 2008, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency routinely investigated one in three reports of adverse events of medical devices. However, in the first 10 months of 2018, this had dropped to one in 100. Shocking! International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Essex mums reveal the horrific side effects of having surgical mesh implants. Essex Live

Australia announces its first specialist treatment centre for women affected by pelvic mesh will open in 2019. Queensland Government

Global investigation into medical devices

For the first time, patients across the world now have access to facts about faulty or dangerous medical devices – including life-threatening ones. Compiled by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and media partners as part of a year-long Implant Files investigation in 36 countries, the database fills a critical information void.

Read about the Implant Files investigation

Also from the ICIJ:

• “Time and again our investigations led to women harmed by medical devices”
• How medical device makers hide the truth on numbers of patients suffering – violating reporting rules, reporting death under malfunction of device and burying patient injuries in records that are not publicly reported. Read more
• Medical device lobbyists persuaded governments that no overhaul was needed to tighten up device regulation. Plans to tighten up regulations were wrecked by the lobbyists TWICE. Read more
• The Implant Files prompted an immediate response, before the first word was even published. Read more
• Looking for answers in blacked-out documents. Read more
• Medtronic, which makes hernia mesh, paid $900 million in five years to medics for research, travel, royalties, consulting fees and more. They set up a scheme for poverty line patients in India to take out loans for pacemakers. An ICIJ analysis of adverse event reports from 2008-17 identified 9,300 deaths and 292,000 injuries potentially linked to products made by Medtronic or its subsidiaries.
  In the years since its ethics pledge, Medtronic reported $3.2 billion in legal charges, and said it reached agreements to settle about 20,000 patient claims and lawsuits. During the same period, the company posted net income totalling about $34 billion. Its market value grew to $125 billion from $28 billion a decade ago. Read more
• US plans ‘significant modernisation’ for medical device approval. Read more
• ‘Deeply concerned’ by Implant Files, Canada vows to strengthen medical device oversight. Read more
• Doctors demand to see medical device safety evidence in Europe. Read more
• YouTube trailer for the Implant Files:
  

Global coverage of the Implant Files

• FranceInfo coverage.
• The Guardian shares a thread on Twitter.
• Baroness Julia Cumberlege: “If you look at the regulation of medicines, it’s pretty strict. We know it takes nine years for a medicine … to be brought to market. With devices, that rigour is not there.” The Guardian
• World champion hurdler Dai Greene had to sit out five years in his sports career because of hernia mesh complications. The Guardian
• Patients have been given unsafe medical devices. A treatment for children with a severely curved spine, or scoliosis, was allowed on to the market following tests only on pigs and dead bodies. Yet, due to a lack of transparency and data collection, the scale of any problem across the medical device industry remains a mystery to both patients and doctors. BBC
• Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, says every new medical device launched on to the market needs a registry to protect patients. BBC
• The number of people featured in the Implant Files is merely dipping a toe into the ocean of those suffering, says Sling The Mesh. Medical Plastics News
• The US Food and Drug Aministration announces it is set to revamp its 510K clearance process which has been in place since 1976 and now outdated for the amount of medical devices on the market compared to the 70s. The Wall Street Journal
• Medical devices are thought to be responsible for 14,000 reported injuries and 1,416 deaths in Canada. CBC
• Inside Canada’s medical device records. CBC
• Patients globally have paid a heavy price for poorly regulated medical devices. Financial Review
• De Telegraaf Amsterdam reports on faulty medical implants and the PIP breast implant scandal.
• ABC News Australia reports almost 83,000 people around the world have died in the past decade because of faulty medical devices.
• CBC on the costly, complex and dangerous world of removal medical implants:
  
• Folha de Sao Paulo says authorities have accused four of the world’s largest medical device companies of running a decade-long “alleged cartel”.
• Le Monde reports how orange fruit netting almsot won backing as a vaginal mesh implant.
• France Cash Investigations looks at the implant scandal:
  
• El Confidencial Spain reports on the medical device regulation shambles. Within five hours of the launch of the Implant Files, the Spanish Ministry of Health announces it will hold a meeting with the scientific associations to discuss the case.
• Radar Netherlands went undercover in 2012 to get approval for orange fruit netting as a vaginal mesh. Here, they update for the Implant Files:
  
• Round up of global device regulation since ICIJ began its investigations. Le Monde

Elsewhere in November…

Faulty US medical devices are shipped to Canada. NBC News

Bard refused to help Danish woman Kate Kristmundsson suffering from one of its prolapse meshes, “partly because she hasn’t the net that is still partially inside her body“! DR.dk

Finnish authorities do not publish information on failing medical devices as it costs too much – plus, they don’t want to worry people. YLE

Woman suffering after vaginal mesh implants. “I live a real nightmare, pain, infections, disability.” L’Obs France

Regulation of medical devices in Europe needs toughening up – and quick. Implants approved in Europe are three times more likely to be subject to a safety alert or recall, says BMJ editor in chief Fiona Goodlee. Read her full article

One woman was told she was making it up to get out of household chores. Hysterical Women

Thigh and groin pain are problems with obturator slings. EIN Newswires

Radio 4 Women’s Hour A Woman’s Health Task Force is to be set up for England. Health minister Jacqui Doyle-Price said : “A number of things that crossed my desk that led me to this conclusion. Firstly I found the evidence that women were not being treated early enough with things like fibroids and endometriosis which are very common conditions. Then we had the whole issue of mesh, where some women had obviously been treated with mesh inappropriately and were suffering very serious complications, and there appeared to be a real disconnect between what the medical establishment were telling me and the experience of women, and it suggested that conversations were not taking place in the right space.”

An ex-Royal Navy officer who saw action in two wars said nothing could have prepared him for the hell of hernia mesh. The Mirror

In Australia, the risk of surgical mesh is raised from medium to high by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

A global task force is launched to tackle medical implant safety after Kath Sansom becomes the first patient in 18 yers to speak at the International Society of Pharmacovigilance in Switzerland. Cambs Times

Mesh is the new four-letter word: BMJ exposes the tragedy of mesh implants

BMJ editor in chief Fiona Godlee says it is time for industry to stop funding trials. The UK needs a proper register of financial interests so everyone can see who is taking money from who in the trials research arena. Sunshine Payment Act is a must.

BMJ podcast tells the story of three women whose lives have been changed beyond recognition by mesh implants:

BMJ covers the draft NICE guidelines in its 13 October issue.

BMJ delves into the murky world of corporate sponsorship that has blighted health care in recent years – no more so than the mesh implant scandal.

How mesh studies became wallet-driven research. The inventor of the TVT, Ulf Ulmsten, given thousands to make sure his research showed the product in a positive light. Read more

How mesh became a four letter word: Paul Hilton, consultant gynaecologist, and lead investigator of the UK and Ireland TVT Trial Group, whose investigation was still ongoing, agreed. It was “highly regrettable,” that TVT had been A-rated “on the basis of no evidence at all” other than “documentation submitted by the manufacturers of the device”. In 1998-99 just 214 women in England had treatment for stress urinary incontinence with a TVT. Mesh’s subsequent fall from grace was almost as precipitous as its rise. From the peak of 11, 365 operations in 2008-09, by 2016-17 the number of TVT and TOT procedures had fallen to 6,227. Over the same period, use of the previous standard treatment for the condition, Burch colposuspension, fell from 3,719 procedures in 2000-01 to just 276 by 2008-09. In 2016-17, only 205 were carried out.

NewsHub New Zealand on how the BMJ’s investigation paints a damning picture of the mesh implant scandal.

Elsewhere in October…

A Scottish Government-commissioned report into the review on mesh implants has found it suffered “systemic” failings and potential conflicts of interest. The report was “ill-conceived, thoughtlessly structured and poorly executed”. BBC

What’s a vagina worth? Makers of mesh and their shareholders know exactly what its value is. San Francisco Chronicle

Mesh implants were unleashed into thousands of women from 1997 without the evidence to prove they were safe. Daily Mail:

MP Layla Moran backs tighter restrictions for mesh use, saying she has constituents suffering. Oxford Times

Mesh should only be used as a last resort, according to draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The Guardian

NICE issues new guidelines, but campaigners say they aren’t tough enough. Daily Mail

NICE issues new guidelines in a U-turn, but women say they are not tough enough. Sky News

MP Owen Smith calls it a “welcome U-turn”, but Sling The Mesh says it’s too little, too late after health watchdog issues fresh guidelines on pelvic mesh implants. Cambs Times

Campaigners say measures to protect women do not go far enough. Huffington Post

The safety review into mesh implants comes to Cambridge. Cambridge News

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee shares its latest report, “Research integrity: clinical trials transparency”. (The world is waking up to the need for greater transparency and regulation for clinical trials.)

Lorraine Lodge’s mesh implant became twisted and lodged in a muscle, and she wishes she had never had the procedure. Campaigners say the NICE draft guidelines are not tough enough to protect women like Lorraine. Eastern Daily Press

The British Society of Urogynaecology (BSUG) releases a report showing that 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, urinary tract infections and loss of sex life. All they use is form PG-1, which focuses on the number of Tena Lady pads do you use.)

The Australian government issues a national apology to women for “decades of pain” because of the mesh implant disaster. BBC

A research paper blames mesh pain on women suffering anxiety about mesh issues. International Urogynecology Journal

Scientists find superbugs live on plastic mesh implants. The Sunday Post

Hernia mesh makes dad contemplate suicide. iNews

The mesh implant highlights the need for organisations to listen to people when they say they’ve been harmed, not healed. Uppsala Reports, Issue 79

Netflix documentary The Bleeding Edge looks at the medical device industry – and how the rush to innovate can lead to devastating consequences for patients. Watch the documentary

The Royal College of Surgeons issues a statement on hernia mesh complications. Read the statement

In the past six years, 570,000 people have had a hernia mesh procedure in England alone. Experts estimate between 12% and 30% of cases suffer severe pain as a result. Daily Mail

Hernia mesh pain nearly drove David Ellis to suicide. BBC News

Up to 170,000 people who have had hernia mesh implants in England in the past six years could face complications, the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme has found. BBC News

Former BMJ editor Richard Smith writes on the importance of Peter Gøtzsche telling it like it is. Peter speaks about how the medicines and health care industry is like organised crime. Read his blog

Irish professor finds failure rate of some mesh is unacceptably high. The Journal

Baroness Cumberlege praises the courage of women who attended the Oxford review to tell how mesh has devastated their lives. Oxford Mail

The independent safety review into mesh, led by Baroness Cumberlege comes to Leeds. Gazette & Herald

Carl Heneghan blogs about TVT: the 17-year follow up and the shrinking denominator effect. BMJ EBM

Pain from a vaginal mesh implant was instant. “One woman was super fit and into martial arts. She’s now in a mobility scooter. On a psychological level, it’s really hard to get your head around how that can result from a ‘simple’ operation that was supposed to improve your quality of life. It takes your breath away.” New Scientist

Carl Heneghan writes the evidence base for mesh is poor. In fact, it is mostly missing. BMJ EBM

Mark Baxter vows to fight for a mesh ban after his mum Eileen dies from a sacrocolpopexy mesh, which is listed clearly on her death certificate. It is believed to be the first time a death certificate has specified mesh as cause of death in Scotland. The Scotsman

Mark Baxter demands a mesh ban after his mum Eileen dies from a prolapse mesh implant implanted abdominally – the one that surgeons can still use and which, they say, is safe. Vaginally placed prolapse mesh was banned in December 2017. ITV News

Mother-of-two Gemma Mulcahy, a dance teacher, went to hospital to have mesh removed – and woke up to find paralysis in her left leg. Wales Online

Woman’s mesh implant causes her so much pain it has made her feel suicidal. It is an abdominally placed prolapse mesh, which surgeons are pushing to be kept for use as they believe it is safe, unlike the banned vaginally placed prolapse mesh. Oxford Mail

The chief medical officer for Scotland, Catherine Calderwood, puts out a statement on mesh suspension.

MSPs call for a total ban on mesh implants in Scotland. BBC News

Heavy criticism of an independent report into the safety of mesh implants amid calls by campaigners to ban their use in Scotland. The Scotsman

The Scottish Government is called to uphold the mesh suspension amid criticism for allowing changes to an “independent” report into the plastic implants. The Scottish Parliament

The Oxford hospitals back mesh implants, despite them being suspended across the UK after a senior Tory peer said they had tragic and appalling life-changing risks. Oxford Mail

Baroness Cumberlege plans to visit women in Southampton whose lives have been changed beyond repair. Daily Echo

The NHS runs a consultation on how women with prolapse or incontinence should be treated in the future. Read the NHS’ document

This is soon followed by suspensions across the British Isles:

• Wales
• Northern Ireland
• Republic of Ireland

The NHS sends advice to hospital medical directors and surgeons on the mesh suspension in three documents:

• Medical Director and surgeon recommendations
• Mesh suspension medical directors appendix
• Medical director covering letter

Elsewhere in July…

The British Society of Urogynaecology publishes its audit from 2014 in the International Urogynecology Journal. (It took four years to come up with a dataset that is short term, only asks one question, does not capture pain, mesh erosion or constant urinary tract infections, and is, therefore, seriously flawed.)

The British Pain Society releases a statement on the effect on women of suffering mesh implant pain.

Robotic study literature is riddled with authors who don’t declare conflicts of interest – around half don’t say they have received payments. Annals of Surgery

Limerick Post editorial says the real cost of clinical deafness and blindness to women’s suffering is yet to be counted. It is richly ironic that surgeons tell women their mesh is not causing a problem yet don’t have scanning machines capable of seeing it.

Paramedic Julie Gilsenan calls for pelvic mesh implants to be banned permanently after it ruined her career, her sex life and the life she loved. Manchester Evening News

Variety reviews Netflix documentary The Bleeding Edge: “Kirby Dick’s disturbingly powerful exposé of the medical-device industry nails a corporatized America that has stopped taking care of its citizens.” Read the review

Doncaster woman Clair Neal says her mesh implant is like living with barbed wire inside her. Doncaster Free Press

Is the promise of big bucks in private practice making surgeon societies desperate to cling on to mesh implants as a treatment option? Daily Mail

Clacton campaigner June Fairclough describes suspension of mesh for incontinence as a victory, but adds that more work needs to be done. Clacton Gazette

Lawyer raises questions over the Government’s ambiguous suspension that leaves everyone wondering what surgeons can and cannot do. Medical Plastics News

NICE pushes back its guidelines into mesh by two months from February 2019 to April 2019. Daily Mail

NICE delays guidelines despite pleas to publish as a matter of urgency. Medical Plastics News

Woman and Home magazine reports on the biggest women’s health scandal of our generation. It says a new mesh is not the answer. Women need educating about looking after their pelvic floors from the teen years upwards. Surgeons need to stop offering mesh so freely, trust that physiotherapy can yield good results and relearn natural tissue repairs.

Several women who have had hernias repaired with plastic surgical mesh say the subsequent pain they have endured has driven them to contemplate – and sometimes even attempt – suicide. Doctors, they add, have offered little in terms of solutions. CTV News

Should mesh implants be banned? Following all the controversy how did this polypropylene implant get signed off in the first place? Patient

Leading Canadian professor Jan Willem Cohen Tervaert calls for large-scale studies into the link between mesh implants and autoimmune diseases. Cambs Times

The family of a woman who killed herself speak of her suffering from the agony of rectopexy mesh. Daily Mail

Milestone for Scottish campaigners as mesh manufacturers fail in their bid to  get mesh court cases thrown out. Scottish Legal News

A mum killed herself after a doctor removed her ovaries “without her knowing”, an inquest heard. Lucinda Methuen-Campbell, 58, had gone to hospital for mesh surgery for a bowel disorder, performed by Tony Dixon, but her ovaries were removed “because they were in the way”. The Sun

Lucinda Methuen-Campbell’s ovaries were removed without her consent during an operation to mend a bowel disorder, but her inquest heard she killed herself because of the pain. BBC News

The Guardian science reporter Hannah Devlin wins Association of British Science Writers award for best investigative journalism, for her investigation that found 1 in 15 vaginal meshes need removing because of complications. The Guardian

CBS 60 Minutes looks at gynecological mesh: the medical device that has 100,000 women suing:

• In it, Duane Priddy – a leading plastics engineer and a fellow of the American Chemicals Society – said: “I can’t, in my wildest imagination, imagine anybody that’s knowledgeable in the science of plastics ever deciding that it was appropriate to use polypropylene in the human body. It’s well known that its oxidatively unstable.” In layman’s terms, oxygen eats plastic.
• Leading plastics engineer Chris DeArmitt said: “I would say the material they’re buying maybe is fine for making a park bench. Maybe it’s fine for making a disposable cup. But that’s a totally different situation when you’re looking at something that will be in the body for 40 or 50 or 60 years.”
• Watch the feature

Hospitals in the Devon area say they aren’t using vaginal mesh – but Devon Live investigation finds they are still using mesh for incontinence and asks why have they pulled wool over people’s eyes. Read more

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care publishes resources for consumers, clinicians and health services on the use of transvaginal mesh products for the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, and mesh removal.

Male mesh slings are trialled in the UK for cancer patients suffering stress urinary incontinence after a prostatectomy. Trials (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.)

Stevenage woman Carole Davies tells how a mesh implant has ruined her life. “I’m still in a lot of pain and it has limiting effects on my life. I can’t stand for long, I can’t walk far and I can’t play with my grandchildren. It has caused me to wonder if life is worth living, and I want to get this poison out of me.” The Comet

Hernia mesh is causing life-changing injuries, too. The problem is that a lot of people don’t realise hernia mesh and vaginal mesh are made of the same plastic material. Huffington Post

Medical Plastics News covers the House of Commons three-hour debate. Government finally recognises the devastating complications of mesh implants.

Bard mesh manufacturers “forgot” to tell a resin maker that its plastics would be used for medical devices – because if it found out, it might stop its supply. Legal Newsline

Ministers are urged to act now over controversial implants as it has been a “wild west” with surgeons showing cavalier attitudes towards women. Sky News

Mesh has a ghastly catalogue of complications. MPs seemed mystified as to why surgeon societies were still trying to justify reasons to use it. Daily Mail

Professor Carl Heneghan says of mesh implants: “These are the sort of outpatient treatment numbers one would expect to see among a cohort of patients with multiple comorbidities, not that you’d see among the relatively young women who have usually been operated on with surgical mesh for urinary incontinence.” Sky News

Shocking figures show a third of women who go to outpatient clinics for help after a mesh implant go to outpatient trauma clinics for pain. Cost to the NHS is £245 million in nine years. Huffington Post

An audit confirmed that thousands of women have been forced to suffer unbearable pain because of their vaginal mesh implants. The audit showed up to 45% of women with mesh require further treatment; in contrast, the NHS had repeatedly argued fewer than 3% of women do. Daily Mail

NHS audit shows the scale of the mesh implant scandal. Medical Plastics News

Government audit has selectively used figures in its main findings to try to show mesh is low risk and presented it in a confusing way – making it impossible for a regular reader to make sense of it. Independent

Almost half of women who have mesh go to hospital with complications, Government audit reveals. Cambs Times

Vaginal mesh is the biggest scandal since thalidomide, MPs told. Swindon Advertiser

A third of women end up in trauma clinics after a mesh implant and half end up in gynaecology outpatient clinics. Sky News

New medical devices that get proper trials before being implanted are safer. Devices cleared without this, by the piggyback method, are 13.6 times more likely to be recalled. Mesh Medical Device Newsdesk

Doctors in the UK are keeping payments from drug and medical companies a secret, says researchers from the University of Oxford. The Telegraph – here is the league table to check your local hospital.

University students film a documentary for Sling The Mesh, “The dark side to surgical mesh”:

Podcast by investigative journalist Jeanne Lenzer: three-quarters of devices on the market in the US have been cleared by the 510K substantial equivalence route, so have not been proven to be safe.

New Zealand campaigners are disappointed in the Government’s so-called restrictions on surgical mesh. Stopped are vaginal prolapse mesh, mini slings and products by Johnson & Johnson, as information for use leaflets by them have not been updated. Instead, abdominal prolapse mesh and some incontinence slings can still be used. Stuff magazine

The Australian Senate inquiry presents its report on the number of women who have had transvaginal mesh implants. Senator Derryn Hinch said: “This is one of the greatest medical scandals of our history.”

Canadian CTV show W5 updates its mesh documentary with views from around the world. Also includes updated interviews of the different opinions on mesh. Watch Mesh Misgivings

Drug Watch reports that hernia mesh guidelines are funded by industry – the two main sponsors are Bard and Johnson & Johnson.

Johnson & Johnson hit with $35 million lawsuit for its Prolift prolapse mesh. National Law Journal

Spanish doctor Juan Gervas says women are used as cannon fodder in the mesh implant disaster. Cambs Times

Two patient representatives have quit an independent review group looking at the safety of mesh implants in Scotland. BBC

Elsewhere in February…

Solicitor says mesh operations should be banned because it is like plastic shrapnel. Bournemouth Echo

MedTalk podcast discusses vaginal mesh issue from 3:30 onwards. The Yellow card is discussed and with clinical data.

Health and Social Care question from MP Jeremy Lefroy to Jackie Doyle-Price, parliamentary under-secretary for health and social care, on February 26, 2018. Hansard copy. Jackie Doyle-Price responded: “The view of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is that surgical mesh devices are acceptably safe when used as intended and as part of an appropriate treatment pathway where the associated risk and benefits are considered, and where surgical mesh devices conform to the requirements of the current legislation in the European Union.” So, they are now ignoring the ban on certain mesh products in New Zealand and Australia under the guise of the European Union – that they are talking of leaving!

The Daily Mail reports that campaigners blasted a new material set to replace polypropylene for pelvic mesh implants. It is still plastic, it has only been tested in chicken embryos and it will add oestrogen, a carcinogenic. Following the PIP breast implant scandal researchers said polyeurethane should not be used in the body. The Sheffield research says it will add oestrogen yet research says this increases risk of cancer.

Shefield University magazine ShefNews covers the “new mesh” story about researchers inventing a new mesh using polyeurethane instead of polypropylene.

Harwich and Manningtree Observer covers the House of Lords Sling The Mesh suffragette rally as Corinda Daw, of Little Oakley, takes part in the protest.

The idea that only prolapse mesh causes problems is ‘utter nonsense’ say campaigners as they take their fight to the House of Lords. Cambs Times – that is like saying only red cars have accidents. Incontinence mesh has the same serious complications.

Sling The Mesh founder Kath Sansom is named as one of six top campaigning women of the 21st century. Belfast Telegraph

Women should not be stuck in a postcode lottery with the care they receive for mesh complications. The Sunday Post

You can’t make an omelette without braking a few eggs, says surgeon who thinks the mesh implant crisis is only a minority suffering and is fuelled by the media. Linda Cardozo, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, also criticises the Daily Mail and says women see themselves as victims. Cambs Times

The MASTER Trial into men’s mesh slings, for men suffering incontinence after prostate cancer, does not mention the risk of mesh complications. Trials

Elsewhere in January…

A catalogue of bias is needed for medicines and devices. Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine

Vaginal mesh complications are too severe to inflict on women, says doctor in the Australian Senate inquiry hearing. The Guardian

New Zealand mesh campaigners update on the state of play for them and globally. Read the Auckland Women’s Health Council newsletter

Mesh “opened me up to a whole new world of pain I didn’t know even existed”, says Amy Whittaker. Daily Mail

Johnson & Johnson will no longer import its pelvic mesh to hospitals in Australia. The Guardian

Southampton women tell their stories of how they went from fit and healthy to being in constant pain. One, whose hobby was martial arts, is now in a mobility scooter or uses walking aids. She barely goes out or speaks to anyone, instead living a life of constant pain. Southern Daily Echo

A survey shows the devastation when women have mesh implant complications. A third give up work and one in five reduce their hours. Many suffer depression. Medical Plastics News

Taboo-busting student journalist Kelsey Dring gives an easy-to-read guide to the vaginal mesh implant scandal. Wisbech Standard

Ruth Turner, mother of two from Blackpool, blows the whistle to prove that surgeons are not giving fully informed consent. Surgeons are telling patients they don’t use the mesh in the media, they use tape or are saying it is only the US mesh causing issues. Cambs Times

Robert Bendavid, a past-president and a founding father of the American Hernia Society, tells Stuff the incidence of chronic pain following all types of hernia repairs had increased substantially since the use of surgical mesh from the mid-1990s.