Japanese surgeons say the mesh controversy is unreasonable
Prolapse mesh inserted vaginally has been banned in many countries – but in Japan it is still widely used by surgeons who think the international debate is unreasonable.
Mesh implants have been called one of the biggest women’s healthcare scandals of our generation and while campaigners in the UK, Australia and New Zealand have successfully highlighted the irreversible harm, in other parts of the world it is quite simply ignored.
In the UK, the First Do No Harm report concluded women have been failed by the healthcare system, subjected to defensive denial of their suffering, compounded by a system with virtually no pre or post market surveillance.
What will happen to women in Japan who suffer mesh implants complications but have nowhere to turn? What for those women who don’t have the language skills to read media articles in a foreign language, to work out that their pain, suffering, and distress was caused by a mesh operation?
A blog in the International Urogynaecologist Association magazine has an alarming Q&A where Japanese surgeons discuss mesh use.
They also reveal that: “The Japanese government has not given permission to use commercially available mesh kits. And so, we use self-made mesh fashioned out of a domestic mesh called Orihime which is made of polytetrafluoroethylene and use indigenously made special needles to insert the mesh.”
Q&A with Japanese urogynaecologists:
Q Given the current international controversy regarding the use of vaginal mesh for prolapse surgery, why do you prefer mesh surgery for prolapse over traditional native tissue repair?
Surgeon One: We think that the controversy is unreasonable. If transvaginal mesh is performed by an expert, the outcomes are great with minimal complications. Our data is good and hence we don’t pay any credence to the international debate.
Surgeon Two: Over the last 15 years, the technique has been improved to become very safe and effective. The most important point is to place the mesh evenly without wrinkling. The operation time for anterior transvaginal mesh is less than 30 minutes.
The operation for vaginal prolapse mesh which they are discussing is banned in the UK, America, Australia and New Zealand.
“Japanese women over 60 years rarely go to the internet to check the outcomes of transvaginal mesh surgery as all articles are mostly in English. Older Japanese women are not usually proficient in English and hence cannot get information from other countries. We do explain the international concerns regarding Transvaginal mesh with the patients, but they don’t care as we show them our results.”
Sadly, their results will be based on questionnaires asking women if their prolapse is fixed. Most cases yes the prolapse is fixed but it causes new, worse symptoms like pain.
But just as happened in the UK, America, New Zealand and Australia, the surveys wont be asking about new onset of pain, complications, infections or loss of sex life – a tragic complication for seven in 10 women on support group Sling The Mesh. That means the results are flawed / skewed and wont highlight mesh risk.
To get a sense of how grave the mesh issue is, in America in 2019, a coalition of 41 American states and the District of Columbia successfully sued for $117 million in a multistate settlement, over allegations that Johnson and Johnson deceptively marketed its pelvic mesh products. The healthcare giant violated state consumer protection laws by not fully disclosing risks. In California, that settlement figure is $344 million in a court hearing in January 2020 which heard the medical device company “engaged in false and deceptive business practices.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/jj-agrees-117m-settlement-pelvic-mesh-devices-66349170
These are not small complications. They are life changing. Vibrant, healthy women have their lives ruined from what is sold as a simple operation. Then, when things go wrong, they are ignored, belittled, humiliated and hung out to dry with little to no support.
The majority are made to feel like they are a mystery, unfortunate patient, until they find our Sling The Mesh support group on Facebook and realise they are not alone.
As of August 2024 there are almost 11,000 members with new people joining daily who share the same narrative regardless of mesh type or which country they live in: I thought I was the only one but have realised there are thousands of us.
