Women across the United States are complaining of transvaginal mesh complications, sometimes alleging these side effects occur soon after implantation. In particular, the symptoms of transvaginal mesh erosion reported have caused major concern to the patient population and medical community.

Transvaginal mesh erosion is one of the more serious complications associated with this medical product, as it causes extreme discomfort and potentially compounds the patient’s condition. Patients often begin to experience symptoms of transvaginal mesh erosion when the device starts grating through the vaginal walls and sometimes into the surrounding organs.

Oftentimes, patients have to undergo revision surgery to remove the transvaginal mesh. Patients who experience device complications of this medical product, can often expect these symptoms of transvaginal mesh erosion:

• Debilitating Pain
• Abscess Formation
• Infection
• Organ Damage
• Bladder or Bowel Damage
• Lack of Urination Control
• Organ Prolapse
• Recto Vaginal Fistula Damage (Small tunnel connecting the rectum with the vagina)

Due to the severity of these side effects, many patients often opt for revision surgery to have the device replaced or removed. However, revision surgery is considered riskier than the initial implant surgery due to the higher likelihood of complications.

Overview of Trasvaginal Mesh Complications

When transvaginal mesh products were first released to the United States, urologists and gynecologists began using them to treat certain medical problems in women. The conditions in question are pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI), both of which are caused by some traumatic injury to the pelvic region like childbirth.

After observing the popularity of these devices, several manufacturing companies released their own kits of transvaginal mesh. However, it was not long after the popularity of this device grow that patients began reporting adverse symptoms of transvaginal mesh erosion, along with other complications.

After a large number of reports were filed, the FDA issued a warning against transvaginal mesh complications in October 2008. The agency released this warning after over 1,000 transvaginal mesh injury reports were submitted from 2005 to 2007, describing injuries sustained from the device.

The FDA would later release another warning in July 2011, after receiving close to 4,000 transvaginal mesh complication reports from 2005 to 2010. While the agency initially stated there were unknown factors in what increased the risks of transvaginal mesh complications, the agency would later conclude that these instances were “not rare.”

In addition, the agency stated that transvaginal mesh procedures are not guaranteed to improve the patient’s quality of life and can actually expose them to greater likelihood of problems. Just recently, by early 2015, approximately 70,000 women had filed transvaginal mesh lawsuits against manufacturing companies after allegedly suffering injuries.

These women complain that these products were advertised as a quick and simple solution to their POP and SUI, but were allegedly exposed to transvaginal mesh complications.