Eight years after mesh sling suspension. Thousands of women spared from harm
From thousands of women to a handful
In July 2018, we achieved what many thought was impossible – the UK suspension of vaginal mesh sling surgery for stress urinary incontinence.
Before the suspension, mesh slings were being implanted in their thousands every year. In 2008-09, more than 10,500 women received a mesh sling. Even as concerns mounted, thousands continued to undergo the procedure annually. Then came 2018.
The impact of that decision by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, at the start of her independent review into the avoidable harm of three women’s health treatments, is impossible to ignore.
The suspension changed everything. Surgeons were forced to return to established tried and tested traditional non mesh alternatives: colposuspension often called a hitch and stitch, or an autologous fascial sling, made from a woman’s own tissue.
In the eight years leading up to the suspension of mesh sling surgery, more than 81,000 women underwent the procedure. In the eight years following the suspension, that number fell to around 70.
Procedures for Stress Urinary Incontinence
| Year | Colposuspension | Autologous Sling | Mesh Sling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008-09 | 220 | 7 | 10,553 |
| 2009-10 | 179 | 6 | 10,115 |
| 2010-11 | 162 | 7 | 9,836 |
| 2011-12 | 157 | 6 | 9,595 |
| 2012-13 | 140 | 8 | 8,975 |
| 2013-14 | 151 | 6 | 8,774 |
| 2014-15 | 153 | 9 | 7,349 |
| 2015-16 | 174 | 25 | 6,197 |
| 2016-17 | 187 | 16 | 5,642 |
| 2017-18 | 308 | 41 | 3,533 |
| 2018-19 | 559 | 43 | 603 |
| 2019-20 | 722 | 228 | 13 |
| 2020-21 | 292 | 113 | 4 |
| 2021-22 | 445 | 227 | 10 |
| 2022-23 | 514 | 259 | 5 |
| 2023-24 | 485 | 463 | 3 |
| 2024-25 | 611 | 648 | 11 |
| 2025-26 | 672 | 667 | 22 |
The decline is staggering. Mesh sling procedures fell from 10,553 in 2008 down to 3,533 in 2017-18 which was when Sling The Mesh reached a peak in mainstream news coverage. The number of women getting mesh slings each year dropped to just 22 in 2025-26.
Meanwhile, since the suspension, colposuspension has more than doubled and autologous slings increased massively from just 41 procedures before the suspension to 667 in the most recent year.
All this raises an obvious question. If mesh was truly the indispensable “gold standard” why have surgeons successfully moved towards non-mesh alternatives?
Of course, every surgical procedure carries risks. But mesh introduces an additional layer of potential harm because a permanent plastic implant is left inside the body.
Research is only just emerging on the impact of a plastic medical device in the human body. Moreover, when complications occur, mesh removal can be complex, sometimes impossible, often incomplete, and always life-altering.
What is particularly telling is that there has never been a grassroots movement demanding a ban on colposuspension. Nor is there a nationwide campaign calling for autologous slings to be suspended. The same cannot be said for mesh.
The mesh scandal is about the unique problems created by implanting permanent plastic mesh into women blindly, using giant hooks. Eight years on from the suspension, the figures show that safer, established alternatives are not only available, they are thriving. And for thousands of women, that’s something to be thankful for.
Source data from NHS procedure figures.
Mesh slings were suspended to High Vigilance Restriction use only which is why a small number of surgeries have been allowed to take place since 2018. Hospital Medical Directors must sign off and approve these surgeries and the woman must have been given fully informed consent on risk.
