A leading gynaecologist says Australia has been slow to act on the health concerns caused by pelvic mesh implants.
"I'm actually quite confident if we had intervened earlier, there wouldn't be these horror stories that we hear now," Professor Thierry Vancaillie, of the Women's Health and Research Institute, told 7.30.
"It tells us that dealing with pain and organ dysfunction is not something that we do well in our speciality.
"And it's about time that we changed."
And he is warning against a rush to automatically remove vaginal mesh from women who are experiencing pain.
"What we're trying to bring to the issue is to have a more formal approach, not just mesh surgery," Professor Vancaillie said.
"Look at the patient as a whole, treat the pain, treat the organs, and then, if we need to remove the mesh, do it as well as we can and remove the entire prosthesis."
More than 700 women have begun a class action against Johnson and Johnson claiming they were injured by vaginal mesh implants used to treat pelvic floor problems.
'There's no support whatsoever'
"The suffering of these women is beyond belief. Literally," Professor Vancaillie said.
"Some of them are unable to function, they are unable to walk, they lose their ability to have intercourse, they lose their ability to work … their mental health is affected.
"They've lost everything, really."
Professor Vancaillie said the women have been ignored.
"There's no support whatsoever," he said.
"There's very little in terms of public health support for these women.
"They need a lot more support than your average pain patients."
TGA process 'should be ongoing'
At the same time Professor Vancaillie believes the actual mesh is not the real problem.
"It's not really the structure or the manufacture of the device, it's how the device integrates within the human body," he said.
And for that to not happen again, he says the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) needs to change the way it operates.
"The TGA approval process currently is a one-time event," he said.
He said a dynamic process of monitoring all devices, not just mesh, is what is needed.
"I strongly believe that it should be an ongoing event, that companies should be asked to provide data or information on their product every so often — let's say every two years or three years," he said.
"At any of these events, at these time frames, the TGA would be allowed to say, 'stop selling now, until we have more information'.
"Right now, there's no such process in place.
"All we're doing is blaming each other, and we're not doing anything for these women."
