Vaginal Mesh Tested Less Vigourously Than Vacuum Cleaners

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www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/vaginal-mesh-is-tested-less-vigorously-than-vacuum-cleaners-chemist-claims_uk_5d3ec407e4b01d8c977e31b1?ncid=tweetlnkukhpmg00000001
Vaginal Mesh Is Tested Less Vigorously Than Vacuum Cleaners, Chemist Claims
Thousands of women have reported complications, with one telling HuffPost the mesh "felt like glass or razor blades inside me".

Speaking about the plastic used in vaginal mesh implants, chartered chemist Dr Chris DeArmitt told Sky News: “I see an absolute disregard for proper testing. Testing is way less than you would see on a vacuum cleaner or a washing machine. It’s shocking. I’ve never seen anything like it in my career.”

He went on to say the material is not “bio-compatible”, suggesting that the body rejects it.

“It’s like having a splinter. Your body says, ‘Hey there’s a foreign body in here let’s get this out’ and it fights this using different mechanisms, which leads to inflammation and pain,” said Dr DeArmitt.

Another one to file under 'women not considered in health research' and 'how household applicances are more important than women'.

Quelle surprise.

I'm not sure I believe that chemist's claims.
I've worked in medical devices, including implants.
There's a huge range of testing that has to be undertaken in order to market any implantable, including:
Chemical safety testing (although you can use some literature data if it's relevant)
Biocompatibility testing using both cells and live animals.
Preclinical safety testing in large animals.
Clinical trials.
Every manufacturer has to do this for every product, they can't use data from other manufacturers (although they can use equivalent device data for some aspects).
There's no way it's been subjected to less testing that a vacuum cleaner.

My mum had vaginal mesh implanted several years ago.
She's gone from being a very fit active woman, to being crippled with pain, with a hugely reduced quality of life.
The mesh has eroded through her vaginal wall, she is constantly bleeding.
Nerve damage means she has difficulty walking.
The autoimmune response has left her with debilitating migraines and numerous food allergies.
She's doubly incontinent.
Recently she developed a rash of blisters. When the blisters burst mesh fibres can be pulled out of them.
The list goes on and on. If you ask her about the mesh her response is "Johnson and Johnson have killed me".
As her daughter and as a health care professional myself, I am horrified by what has been done to her. But even more so by the stonewalling and denial that she has been met with by the medical community. (She tried to get her medical notes from the operation, but was told they had been destroyed, this would have been illegal. When another medical trust queried why this had been allowed to happen, they magically were undestroyed).
My mother is not interested in suing, she just wants to be well again. But the NHS seems to be so scared of the impending lawsuits that they are doing everything within their power to gaslight these poor women, minimising the damage that has been done to them and making them feel like malingering attention seekers.

Corn so sorry your mum, and you, are going through this.

Medical implants are a scandal. The way complaints about vaginal mesh was treated is a symptom of how women are treated generally in healthcare and needs serious attention in medical schools etc.
www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/25/revealed-faulty-medical-implants-harm-patients-around-world?
And it's not just women affected. It's an endemic problem
There's a daisy chain effect, A is similar to B and then C is similar to B allowing minor differences to result in major problems.
Examples of failure in the market include:

Replacement hips and vaginal mesh products sold to hospitals without any clinical trials.
Patients relying on faulty pacemakers when manufacturers were aware of problems.
Complications with hernia mesh that ruled one of Britain’s top athletes out of competing for years.
Regulators approving spinal disc replacements that later disintegrated and migrated in patients.
Surgeons admitting they were unable to tell patients about the risks posed by implants because of a lack of central registers.
Patients in Australia being given devices that the regulator has approved on the basis they have been approved in Europe.

Is this the same mesh that has cause over 100000 complications in hernia surgery?

Oh heavens corndollie. So sorry for your mum to have had an operation which she would have been told would help her. 💐💐

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-45498019

There was something on medical devices on Netflix this mesh shite was grandfathered in on the back of big sheets they use for hernia. Basically 0 testing on reproductive areas.

The vagina is a very flexible organ that is designed to expand enough to accommodate a penis or a babies head and then contract, so its always struck me that mesh is a strange idea from the outset.

The hernia pieces were as big as the a flat hand with anchor points. Then they started snipping tiny bits and using those anywhere.
Is it still banned in Scot?

What has been done to these women is horrendous. Is there anything being researched on how they can now help them?

From what I remember of the Victoria Derbyshire show there is only one surgeon trying to remove mesh in the nhs.
An impossible task because the pieces used are tiny, are designed to irritate and inflame tissue and importantly migrate to wherever they end up.

No, it's true deydododatdodontdeydo.

Staggeringly, true.

That's why Baroness Cumberledge suspended the devices in NHS England - been suspended in Scotland since 2013.

The good thing about the mesh was that it was quick to fit, the alternative surgery is complex and long, with a long recovery time. Mesh needed anaesthetic of under an hour, brilliant.

They took tech that was used for hernias and stuck them into vaginas. Oddly enough, vaginas don't work the same as abdominal walls. No testing was done, which is why the payouts in the US have been so massive - biggest so far is $42 million. There are reports of incentives to encourage surgeons to use the implants, and of counterfeit implants in the NHS.

Most women are fine post-mesh, but, if you are one of the ones who is not, you are in trouble.

It's almost as if Johnson and Johnson thought "oh well, it's only a vagina"

It's appalling and the total confusion and incoherency in approach from NICE, the IMMDS Review and the NHS has done nothing to reassure the public that the situation is being properly addressed, or that something like this couldn't happen again.

This is a real scandal. My friend had vaginal mesh and awful problems. Has anyone read Invisible Women by CCP yet? Really interesting on medical research gendered data gaps.

www.netflix.com/gb/title/80170862?preventIntent=true

If anyone is interested, eye opening to say the least.

I noticed when this was first reported a few years back that a lot of the emphasis on this was because it left women in too much pain to have sex. And I couldn't help wondering if one of the reasons this came to light was because that had a knock on effect on men. If these had caused complications that were confined to the woman they were implanted in they would probably all still be being told they are hysterical.

Maybe I am being overly cynical, but I do wonder...

I need some work done and refused mesh twice. I've to wait now until it gets to the grade they need to do a hysterectomy. I'd seen a VD programme that covered it. People in constant agony and wheelchairs yet they carried on using it.
I don't fancy Russian roulette with my organs.

The lack of care about the women in such pain once the issue had been raised and found to be a problem is just gobsmacking - one thing (albeit not acceptable in any way) to have not tested properly to not know - but once they do know, to carry on - it's playing russian roulette with women's lives. I typed people's lives to start with and had to change it because they're not - it's just women and they really don't see to see a problem with that.

On a lighter note - the ads on the side of this page are almost exclusively for vacuum cleaners - mostly for Dyson and how much better it fared in tests against the Shark... Thinking that they need to get Dyson on board to design a better solution to the mesh - might have a better chance of doing what it should do and no injuring any women...

Has anyone read Invisible Women by CCP yet?

Yes - excellent look at how women have not been considered in design in civilization from cars to appliances to medical Rx & procedures et al.

And on the medical device testing... if a device comes out that's similar enough to one that was previously approved even if the materials are different if it basically looks and "functions similar to" it will get used without rigorous testing.

Has anyone read Invisible Women by CCP yet?

Nope. Added to my wish list near the top...

Corn, my mum was the same. Then she developed stomach and ovarian cancer and died at 61. The mesh wrecked her life, there’s no way I’d ever let them near me with it.

I noticed when this was first reported a few years back that a lot of the emphasis on this was because it left women in too much pain to have sex. And I couldn't help wondering if one of the reasons this came to light was because that had a knock on effect on men. If these had caused complications that were confined to the woman they were implanted in they would probably all still be being told they are hysterical. Isobel, I noticed that too.

Turns out that having penises injured by vaginas which feel like they have a cheese wire inserted is what grabs the attention of the press.

All credit to Scottish Mesh Survivors and Sling The Mesh for their tireless campaigning and activism. Amazing women.

Even in the Netflix doc it's blatant that Women just don't matter. The doc also covers a permanent sterilisation method, similar to a coil but like the mesh they migrated and caused injury and mayhem. When they talk about mesh it isn't long before a sad face and cut penis crops up.