As women, we are living in an incredible time in history. Women are speaking out against sexual abuse with the #MeToo movement, Iceland passed a law requiring women to receive equal pay for equal work and women in the U.S. are running for political office in record numbers. However, transvaginal mesh (TVM) still continues to victimize women in many countries, including the U.S. Why are women still being ignored concerning this tragic issue?
Hundreds of news stories have been published, countless women’s lives have been destroyed, and yet the public radar still fails to pick up the dangers of TVM. One in three women will suffer from stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and about 200,000 surgeries are performed in the U.S. each year to help to fix pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Millions of women from around the globe have had TVM implants to aid the embarrassing and complex issues of SUI and POP, but hundreds of thousands of them are unable to live normal lives due to painful complications. The TVM has made them more immobilized than the original conditions of SUI and POP! If this medical device poses such a risk, then why is it still in use? Many believe that this goes beyond being just a medical issue: it is a gender issue and a modern day crime against women.
Now bear with me here: let’s imagine that Viagra was causing mens’ penises to decay. This would cause intense pain which would lead to an inability to work and to perform normal daily tasks. It would also eliminate the possibility for sexual intercourse. In much the same way, this is what’s happening to women who have had faulty pelvic mesh implanted into their vaginas. Mesh can erode, slice into tissue and organs, and migrate into the vagina causing painful intercourse for both the woman and her partner. Is a woman’s vagina worth less than a man’s penis? It appears so.
In fact, in Australia where TVM is banned, they are indeed calling pelvic mesh a gender issue. Australian Pelvic Mesh Support Group founder Caz Chisholm fought on behalf of these women and spoke out claiming that the issue of TVM featured men representing manufacturers defending the devices and male surgeons also defending the devices. However, the victimized women were quieted and grossly neglected for decades to quietly bear their injuries. “It was really clear from the women that they weren’t listened to for a long time,” explains Chisholm. “It was men making decisions about women’s bodies… To the women who have been injured by these devices it feels like abuse. It feels like a violation. Mesh injury is traumatic and takes the core of a woman’s femininity away from her, and the industry is dominated by males.”
While several countries have banned TVM, the U.S. continues to insert this faulty medical device into women’s vaginas without fully making these women aware of the potential hazards. Women aren’t being told of the adverse effects of pain, erosion and migration that can hinder their health for the rest of their lives. Additionally, they aren’t being told that once put in, the chances are slim to none of ever removing it.
But there are lessons to be learned from Australia and the #MeToo movement. We can fight until our voices are heard by the FDA. We can join together and continue to make legal claims against TVM manufacturers to show that they can’t make money off of our pain. And we can support others who are going through the same circumstances and find strength in this sisterhood of courage.
