When the Mesh Failed: Transvaginal Mesh Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe transvaginal and pelvic mesh, used as slings for leaking and as implants for prolapse. A school bus driver, a dinner lady told for seven years it was her nerves, a nursing assistant who could not pass urine after surgery for leaking, a farm wife driven four hours to a surgeon, a salsa teacher, a 911 dispatcher, a community pharmacist and a widow starting over at sixty-eight all tell their part, from Tucson to Cape Town, Swansea to Pune. Writers describe groin pain and limping, blood in the toilet bowl, three rounds of antibiotics in one winter, mesh found on a scan for a kidney stone, and intimacy that became hard to talk about. Treatments include removal, rebuilding with the writer's own tissue, a ten-minute fix in a clinic, learning to self-catheterise, physiotherapy, insurance denials, waiting lists and a support group in a church hall. Several had good results, including a worrier whose sling turned out to be fine and a woman who chose to leave exposed tape in place. Others are still living with pain: one woman had six operations, another found the pain stayed after the mesh was gone, and one surgeon told a writer he did not do that kind of operation.

Who it's for

For women offered mesh surgery or living with a sling or implant that does not feel right, and the husbands, daughters and sisters who want to understand what she has been trying to say.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 281 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.