Mum-of-two left ‘a broken woman’ after botched vaginal mesh op left her homeless, jobless and unable to have sex
At her lowest point, Lisa Woodrow, 53, from Thetford, Norfolk, was in a wheelchair for 18 months and couldn't walk after having a TVT mesh sling inserted
A MUM-OF-TWO was left a "broken woman" after a botched vaginal mesh operation left her homeless, jobless and unable to have sex.
Lisa Woodrow had hoped the routine gynaecology procedure would make a "new woman" out of her, but afterwards she suffered chronic pain and spent 18 months in a wheelchair unable to walk.
Unable to work, she lost her job and had to sell her house, leaving her homeless, while her relationship also fell apart.
In October 2016, Lisa had NHS surgery to remove it. But although her symptoms improved, she has yet to return to full health.
She has since joined the which is calling for the procedure to be suspended in the UK.
Lisa said: "I was a fun loving party girl before a transvaginal mesh implant (TVT) robbed me of the life I once knew."
The former sales and marketing executive underwent the 20-minute surgery in November 2012.
She explained: "Before the mesh operation, I was excited and optimistic.
"I thought it would resolve my long-running problems of uterus prolapse and mild urine incontinence, which had gradually developed after the birth of my two sons, now 31 and 32.
"I even joked to my partner at the time that this operation was going to make me feel like a new woman.
"It certainly did that. I haven’t been the same since."
Immediately after her surgery, Lisa found using the toilet difficult, had recurrent urine infections and couldn't sit down without cushions underneath her.
She also found it painful to have sex.
Lisa raised concerns at a three-month check-up but was told the operation had been a success and the problems were due to scar tissue.
She recalled: "My consultant told me scar tissue could take a long time to heal.
"But then I started to get painful nerve spasms in my legs and my GP was fearful it might be MS.
"After seeing a neurologist I was given the all-clear. But still I got the spasms, then I started to get pain radiating through my hip and groin area.”
For a long time, Lisa felt she had no choice but to put up with her symptoms.
But in May 2015, things suddenly took a turn for the worse.
"I woke after a restless night with pain - but when I went to get out of bed, I couldn’t stand up or support myself any more," she said.
"My partner dialled 999 and called an ambulance."
After six weeks in hospital, Lisa was told she had slipped a disk or that her lower spine had narrowed, although this later proved to be an incorrect diagnosis.
She said: "Every time I tried to walk, my legs shook so that I could only shuffle a few steps.
"It felt like there was barbed wire inside my groin and leg. I had to start using a walking frame and wheelchair to get about."
When her dad Jack visited her in hospital, he told her of a woman he'd seen on TV complaining of similar symptoms, caused by her TVT mesh.
Fearing her operation was to blame for her plight, too, Lisa begged doctors to send her to a gynaecologist specialising in mesh.
But medics were reluctant to make a referral, so she spent her life savings to privately see a gynaecologist who discovered the mesh had torn through her urethra and vagina wall.
In February 2016, on the NHS, Lisa saw removal specialist Dr Sohier Elneil in London and was told her mesh had been incorrectly inserted and had since eroded.
What are transvaginal tape (TVT) implants?
- Transvaginal mesh implants, commonly known as TVT implants, are medical devices used by surgeons to treat women for pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence, which commonly occur after childbirth.
- The mesh, usually made from a synthetic polypropylene, is intended to repair damaged or weakened tissue.
- Mesh implants have been used successfully in many other parts of the body, but may react differently when inserted in the abdomen, where they can cut into into surrounding tissue and nerves, causing severe discomfort.
- Some women reported severe and constant abdominal and vaginal pain following the surgery. Others have claimed they can no longer have sex, experienced infections and bleeding. Many have said their original incontinence wasn’t improved by the surgery.
- In 2014 the Scottish government ordered a temporary suspension of TVT implants by the NHS in Scotland, after members of Scottish Mesh Survivors told of life-changing side effects they’d suffered. The surgery was reinstated in March 2017, amid claims the independent review was a whitewash.
- Campaigners have also claimed a cover-up by UK regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which allegedly attempted to divert attention away from recording adverse incidents.
- Consultant urogynaecologist Dr Sohier Elneil is one of few surgeons in the UK who can remove the mesh implant, once it's been fitted. She has seen an increase in patients, admitting: "I used to see five women a week, now it's more like 15. Many women are getting the procedure without full information about the risks."
- There are growing calls for TVT mesh to be suspended, with some medical professionals describing it as “the biggest health scandal of our time”.
- The UK-wide MHRA has said it believes up to three per cent of women having the procedure for stress urinary incontinence and up to six per cent who receive an implant for pelvic prolapse suffer complications. But campaigners believe the problem is affecting many more women than that.
She had it removed that October, but she's been left in permanent nerve pain, which can flare up and keep her in bed for days.
Lisa said: "My legs still shake badly and I need a stick to support me.
“I’ve had to learn to walk again with a heel-toe step, but I can only manage a little way and must use a wheelchair for longer distances.
“I'm now waiting for further surgery to remove the remnants of the mesh from behind my pubic bone, then I’ll have a colposuspension – the traditional surgical fix for incontinence – as I've become fully urine incontinent.
“Ironically, the mesh never helped very much with my incontinence- the reason I had it done in the first place.
"I’ve gone from loving dancing, doing karate, swimming and taking long walks to a shell of the woman I once was.
"I had to give up my successful business supplying hotels with accessories and sell my house.
"Now I live in rented accommodation on benefits. I’m registered disabled, a broken woman.
"The pain is so bad I’m on the highest dose of daily pain-relieving drugs - I’m a legal drug addict. I take 22 tablets a day.
“If it hadn’t been for the support of (Sling the Mesh founder) Kath Sansom and other women on the Sling the Mesh Facebook group, I don’t believe I’d ever have got the operation to remove the mesh, that I so needed.
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"Because of how I was treated by my GP, in particular, I’d almost started to believe the pain must be in my head."
Recently Lisa has been to parliament to lobby against the surgery and has joined a legal case.
MPs will be meeting to discuss a public enquiry and there are plans for an all-party parliamentary group to look into the allegations.
In March we told how a mum was left with a "deadly vagina" that "BIT" her partner during sex after surgery for stress incontinence went wrong.
In June we reported how a biker's botched vagina op destroyed her sex life – and left her jobless and disabled.