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Welcome to Mesh News Desk, September 2016~ If you are new to the mesh mess you have come to the right place!
Mesh Medical Device News Desk has been focusing on news surrounding the pelvic mesh fiasco for five plus years now. This is a news and information site and is not supported by law firms or doctors. Any advertising is labelled as such. Your information is not shared with anyone unless you make such a request. Donations are accepted and appreciated.
There are now more than 100,000 product liability lawsuits filed in the U.S. by women who claim life-altering injuries from transvaginal pelvic mesh, a polypropylene (PP) mesh that is still used today to treat incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse (POP).
There are thousands of other lawsuits filed by women overseas in Europe, the UK, Israel, Australia, Scotland, Canada, among other countries.
Soon the POP mesh will become a rarity because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reclassifying it to high-risk from a moderate risk medical device. That will happen if its manufacturers fail to prove it is safe and effective, something now required post-market. Even the FDA acknowledges the risks of POP mesh outweigh the benefits.
You may recall that in 2008, after thousands of reports of complications came into the FDA about pelvic mesh, the FDA declared mesh complications were “rare.” By mid-2011 the FDA reversed that stance and said complications were “not rare.”
If you are one of the unlucky ones who has a complication, which can occur at any time, you may not agree that a pelvic mesh sling is the “Gold Standard” the term still used by some doctors to explain mesh slings.
Listen to Project Censored interview your editor recently. They asked very good questions. Listen here.
What’s very disturbing is the doctors who have been advised not to use polypropylene mesh as a first-line repair, are still doing so. We have been told by women recently implanted that doctors say things like “it’s not the same mesh,” or the troublesome mesh “has been recalled.” Frankly, these things are not true. Besides manufacturers quietly removing some polypropylene mesh from the market for “economic reasons,” most remain on the market.
Disintegrating J&J mesh, Sling the Mesh campaign
See the story “Top 10 Myths Women are Told Today about Pelvic Mesh” Here
If you are told you need polypropylene mesh to correct prolapse or incontinence, you will need to direct your own medical care and be a truly informed consumer. Please read this article on true informed consent. The list is very long. We hope these pages and the reader comments help you toward your education, especially comments from people who have been there.
For those of you considering having a pelvic mesh implant, or a hernia mesh implant for that matter, please ask your doctor if he or she knows how to do an alternative procedure using sutures or fascia harvested from your own body.
After a very long delay, this fall lawsuits should resume again, please keep an eye on the trial schedule, which changes frequently.
See the additional stories concerning talcum powder and ovarian cancer. The links are very strong and the precautionary principle suggests you not use the talc for feminine hygiene.
Many of these stories that affect women are being incorporated into a new website by your editor in Women's Health Litigation. It's still in the design stage, but it is important to learn what lies in legal documents before the court cases reveal to the public problematic products that affect our health.
As we know from experience, that vital information frequently takes too long to see the light of day.
Onward Friends!
Jane Akre, Editor, Mesh News Desk, Women's Health Litigation