The West Virginia attorney general has brought a transvaginal mesh lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson based on claims that the company improperly marketed the surgical product. Regulators stopped sales of the transvaginal mesh products in the U.S. some time before the news broke about this new transvaginal mesh lawsuit, according to local news affiliate WHSV.

According to the lawsuit, the company misrepresented both the effectiveness as well as the risk profile for the device, putting women who underwent surgery for pelvic organ prolapse at risk of being seriously harmed by the side effects of transvaginal mesh.

In April of 2019, the Food and Drug Administration reportedly announced that no further sales of the transvaginal mesh products would be allowed in the U.S. based on the thousands of lawsuits and injury reports from women who say they were not told of the dangers beforehand.

Multiple manufacturers had already stopped their internal processes of making the devices as a result of the complaints and impending lawsuits.

As alleged by the West Virginia Attorney General, Johnson & Johnson, who had stopped their own sales before the FDA halted them nationwide, made misleading claims about the mesh. According to the lawsuit, the company even took advantage of studies that were shared by paid consultants rather than presenting an accurate picture of the device’s risk profile.

The surgical mesh in question has been used by gynecologists going back to the 1990s for the purpose of treating pelvic collapse. That condition is associated with movement of the reproductive organs or bladder. In many cases, that condition could require women to undergo multiple surgeries to correct the underlying problem. The mesh was approved for use in these surgeries in 2002.

However, after that product became very popular for treating POP, women began to complain of issues with it after they’d had the mesh implanted. Thousands of injury reports were filed with the FDA highlighting numerous problems, including situations when the mesh shifted into other locations.

Based on those many reports, the FDA later classified the mesh as high-risk, according to UCLA Health. As many as 200,000 inpatient procedures for treating pelvic organ prolapse are conducted every single year in the U.S., and transvaginal mesh had become popular for many of these prior to the reports and complaints.

Women who underwent the surgery for POP expected that their condition would improve, but plenty saw new side effects instead. Those included erosion of the mesh that affected nearby organs, vaginal scarring, recurrence of POP, incontinence issues, urinary pain, and infection. Some of those patients noted that their conditions were so serious that it affected their daily life.

Around the world, up to four million women had mesh used in their surgery for the treatment of prolapse or incontinence, and up to 15 percent of them have reported some kind of side effect.

Some of those women have chosen to file a transvaginal mesh lawsuit against the maker of their device, arguing that the medical community and the public have the right to know the dangers before going through the surgery and learning to live life with the mesh.

If you or someone you know has suffered significant pain after getting mesh implanted, consulting with a doctor could help you determine your next steps. Top Class Actions can help you find an attorney.