Many women who experience pelvic organ prolapse or stress urinary incontinence have now filed a transvaginal mesh lawsuit, alleging they weren’t sufficiently warned that the devices are connected with so many complications.

What is Transvaginal Mesh?

When women suffer from pelvic organ prolapse or stress urinary incontinence, they are often encouraged by their doctor to receive a transvaginal mesh implant.

This device is a net-like implant that is often used to help women after a hysterectomy, childbirth or menopause. It is made of a plastic called polypropylene and is inserted through the vagina rather than through an invasive surgery.

Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuit

However, these devices have caused many severe complications in many women. Many of these women have opted to file a transvaginal mesh lawsuit in response to their mesh side effects.

Women who allege transvaginal mesh side effects claim that the devices were never fully tested through clinical trials. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved them with a fast track program in both 1996 and 2002 for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse respectively.

By 2008, thousands of complaints of severe pain, organ perforation and mesh erosion had been reported to the FDA by transvaginal mesh patients.

Complications and side effects that transvaginal mesh can cause include infection, bleeding, extreme pain, pain during sexual intercourse and recurrence of urinary incontinence.

In 2011, the FDA announced that these complications were not rare and by the next year, told manufacturing companies to monitor their devices’ safety. As a result, many companies removed their mesh products from the market.

Most women who have filed a transvaginal mesh lawsuit allege that the manufacturing companies such as Ethicon, American Medical Systems (AMS), Boston Scientific, Coloplast Corp., Cook Medical, and Neomedic were aware of potential complications but kept marketing and selling the mesh devices regardless.

Plaintiffs say that manufacturers misled them by providing false information about their products and that these manufacturers have a legal duty to make sure their consumers were safe.

Mesh erosion and organ perforation can hinder normal activities such as walking, sitting and sexual intercourse for women with transvaginal mesh. Some women have to have revision surgery to fix the problems that the mesh introduces.

Plaintiffs who file a transvaginal mesh lawsuit often seek compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, lost spousal consortium, lower quality of life and pain and suffering.

Tens of thousands of transvaginal mesh lawsuits are still pending against multiple manufacturers, and some plaintiffs have received multimillion dollar awards from a transvaginal mesh lawsuit.