Certificates. “I thought I was going to die.” Severely disabled by excruciating pain after insertion of urinary strips, women file complaints

Stabs between legs, cramps, back pain, inability to walk. About a hundred women, including about ten in Occitanie, filed complaints for “intentional injuries and fraud” after suffering complications after applying urine strips.

“After the operation, I thought I was going to die”. Sonia doesn’t know what to do now. Overnight, her life, like many women’s, was turned upside down after being put on strips to combat urine leakage. In 2021, this Nimes woman, now 42 years old, underwent Anga Vamsha after her fourth birth. His bladder was 5 centimeters down. He then consults a gynecologist who specializes in this type of health problem. After a battery of examinations, he suggested an operation and promontofixation to enlarge her bladder. And to fit it, during the same procedure, with polypropylene urinary strips to support the urethra and ultimately avoid incontinence problems.

Sonia confidently walks into the operating room. He will spend more than 5 hours there. And wakes up with severe pain. According to the medical team there is nothing unusual. Days and weeks pass. “I was bedridden for a month in excruciating pain. I had a really hard time getting over it. I was told it would gradually disappear. But this is not the case. Back pain, weight and abdominal cramps, difficulty in bowel movement. Pain is a part of everyday life, including during sexual intercourse. His life has been completely turned upside down.

She returns to consult her gynecologist: “He tells me it’s because of the strips, these foreign bodies that were implanted in me and that it’s more sensitive during periods and intercourse or when I’m constipated. Before, I wasn’t. Ever. I walked for 10 could.one day in a day km.

His doctor prescribed Tramadol, an opioid-based painkiller. Sonia is in a lot of pain. The medicine calms the pain but he becomes dependent on it. She is referred to a pain center that prescribes the same treatment. She decided to wean herself. The severity of his ailments increases again. After a few months, her gynecologist told her there was nothing more he could do for her. Nor did he ever have a patient who suffered. “It gave me chills. I felt like I was the only one. I felt guilty, because I was the one who wanted the operation. I went crazy. But my gynecologist didn’t tell me about her post-op pain! “ After several months, his doctor suggested that he remove the bandages with no guarantee that the pain would disappear. “On top of that, organ lineage can be reversed,”

Inhales Sonia who refuses to fall into the same problem again and feels lonely.

“I’ll be 43 in the spring. I feel a little old. I don’t dare make an appointment with my gynecologist anymore.”

While searching for a solution, she discovered groups of women on social networks who had also suffered martyrdom after having their vaginal prostheses installed. Through their testimony, she learns with surprise that the strips stick to the limbs over time, some women are severely disabled after the operation and others file complaints against X.

This is the case of Anabella Neto. This resident of Pau in Pyrénées-Atlantiques took the plunge and managed to pull off a strip. Professor Xavier Gamay, urologist, at the Chue de Toulouse in Haute-Garonne, in October 2023. 2 years, 3 months and 2 weeks. Annabella counted the days, weeks, months of this ordeal. “When I woke up, I said: Doctor, I’m breathing! I laughed again, I hadn’t laughed in almost two years.”

This fifty-year-old, mother of three, secretary in the automobile industry, is not completely out of the woods yet. He still walks with a walker. His left leg still hurts. But she has come a long way. She was also operated on in Pau by a urologist in 2021, after a hysterectomy, to treat malignant prolapse of the organs. Like Sonia, to avoid possible urinary incontinence, her doctor suggests that she double the procedure by placing TOT-type strips under the urethra. A practice described by Professor Gamme, president of the French Association of Urology (AFU), as “disturbing”. But Annabella won’t be until later. At no point is she informed of possible complications or side effects.

Once the effect of the anesthesia wears off, Annabella experiences a sharp pain in her pubis. “I didn’t understand what was happening to me. It was like I was wearing a 36-38 size belt when I’m 42-44. I couldn’t move, it was pulling me from all sides.

“I asked the doctor: But what did you do to me? It is very tight! He replied that it is normal.”

Bernice returns to work three months later. She is also prescribed tramadol. Suffering is intense, pain is permanent. She also has difficulty walking, standing or sitting. She lives with a stabbing sensation between her legs and in her groin. One day, she had contractions and ended up in the emergency room. We talk to him about neuropathic pain.

She is then referred to Pau’s Pain Center. His house is equipped with medical beds. “It’s a shock to always be on these two legs and suddenly find yourself in a wheelchair,” says Annabella. She suffers so much that she contemplates suicide. She posts a message on Facebook looking for people who are going through the same thing as her. She is approached by a group that brings together 600 women. She learns that there are two types of bandages, TVT and TOT . The latter is banned in Canada because it can cause serious complications, which is what was implanted in her. A highly regulated practice in France by a 2020 decree.

Through this group, she learns that only a translabial ultrasound will tell her that the pain is due to the strips. “Even my urologist didn’t know about the test. I went to see another one in Bordeaux. The strip was a millimeter from the urethra. He told me it had to be removed quickly.”

Anabella will be operated on October 16, 2023 in Toulouse by Professor Xavier Game, who is president of the French Association of Urology (AFU). He was the first in the world to remove the transocular sling in 2003 and published on these complications.

“These strips have since been withdrawn from the marketXavier underscores Game is fighting to impose continuous training on practitioners. “There is initial training which is respected but that is all. We have also set up a register to better monitor the patients managed. The aim is also to better monitor the evolution of practices and equipment.”

The president of the AFU is also campaigning for better monitoring of practitioners so that they respect two decrees taken by the Ministry of Health in 2020 and 2021 in view of the significant number of complaints. They prescribe it “The patient should agree with the doctor to choose the type of strips, TOT or TVT, Annabella gives the list. VsIt was my doctor who made the decision for me. We must pass in front of the multidisciplinary team that must certify their agreement to the operation. We should be given an explanation sheet from the AFU on what urinary incontinence is and another on the transobturator sling. As far as I am concerned, I never had these documents.”

Annabella is slowly recovering and can finally sit up for a few hours. After another examination she has discovered where the pain is coming from in her left leg. The strip was attached to an obturator muscle causing a tear. Besides the consequences on her health, which she continues to discover, what she can’t stand is seeing every day women whose operations continue and who testify to their ordeal through their Facebook group. “Women of all ages, who see their lives ruined! She got angry. There are women who go to the United States to have the strips removed piece by piece. It costs 22,000 euros. In France, that is also possible, but you need to know which center is approved to install or remove the strips.” Work is currently being undertaken to establish a list of referral centers, along with other women who have gathered collectively.

Last November, by our colleagues’ column From the Parisian, Annabella Neto also launched an appeal with 53 other women to demand a complete ban on these TOT strips. She also filed a complaint against her urologist before the Bar Council. Along with 77 other women, she filed a complaint against, this time “Intentional Injury and Fraud”. “We are going to file additional complaints as we have been approached by new complainants. In total, there will be about a hundred”, mentions one of his lawyers, Mee Helen Patte. The first complaint was filed three years ago in the Public Health Unit of the Paris Judicial Court. Nothing changed until last fall.

The Central Office for Combating Environmental and Public Health Attacks launched its investigation in November 2023. It is responsible for hearing complainants and practitioners. Coincidence or simple chance, launching soon after Elodie’s death, she also suffered complications after implantation of a vaginal prosthesis. The 37-year-old went to Belgium for euthanasia and ended her suffering.

Several legal proceedings are underway in America, Canada and Australia. After an investigation by a parliamentary committee in England, health authorities decided that these strips “should be used only in exceptional circumstances if at all”, Notify our colleagues at Médiapart. “Some laboratories will stop selling the strips in France by the end of 2024 and in the coming years. Because the conditions in France are stricter: they are asked to demonstrate the safety of their products. Which is not the case in the United States” , says urologist Xavier Gamay.

For what reason? because Some laboratories, aware of the complications and side effects, do not include it in their instructions While continuing to market to them. Among the complainants french, “There are many women who were prescribed these devices as a preventative measure, who had small urine leaks during exercise, who didn’t pass out in their daily lives, who were told during a break that it was a risk-free intervention all around. Twenty minutes. Then she can do a little more

Trampoline“, Mi Patte argues. However, other devices exist such as PCR or Cube and which are not always prescribed by doctors.

The investigation will have to determine whether the laboratories or practitioners are responsible. or both parts. Practitioners suggest that complications occur only in 3% of cases. The figure is undoubtedly lower than reality as it will not be disclosed to the National Agency for Safety of all medicines and health products. In France, it is estimated that around 35,000 women have urine strips applied to them. Since 1996, every year. “Practitioners believe that these strips work on many women. But that is not the point, Begs me again. If there are adverse effects, we should, before their installation, inform the women and they might be disabled for life.”