{"id":2923,"date":"2011-07-28T22:49:45","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T03:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=2923"},"modified":"2011-07-28T22:49:45","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T03:49:45","slug":"bedside-manners-respect-and-protect-the-pelvic-floor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2011\/07\/28\/bedside-manners-respect-and-protect-the-pelvic-floor\/","title":{"rendered":"BEDSIDE MANNERS: Respect and Protect the Pelvic Floor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, I\u2019ll admit it \u2013 ever the STD researcher, I was tempted to focus on the recent NYT<\/em> article, \u201cA Vaccine May Shield Boys Too<\/a>.\u201d* Instead, I dedicate this month\u2019s column to a recent news item that has not attracted a lot of attention:\u00a0the FDA issued an advisory<\/a> warning against the use of mesh implants that are routinely used for surgical repairs of pelvic floor damage.\u00a0\u00a0Warning: This post contains medically accurate language which some readers might find disturbing<\/strong>. (It also contains new medical findings that all readers should find disturbing!)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

First, it\u2019s important to know what the pelvic floor<\/em> is and what functions it serves: in addition to this image from 1918\u2019s\u00a0Gray\u2019s Anatomy,<\/em> check out a newer medical illustration<\/a> included in a recent LA Times <\/em>article.\u00a0 This muscular structure has the demanding job of supporting the uterus, bladder, urethra, the walls of the vaginal canal and rectum. In other words, it\u2019s pretty darn important.\u00a0 Without functional pelvic floor muscles, women can experience urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and uncomfortable\/painful sexual intercourse.\u00a0 (Not to mention, it\u2019s more than a little disconcerting to have to manually push your prolapsed organs back into place.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Surgical repairs of this type of damage are often done to correct prolapses of the uterus and surrounding organs which, to put it bluntly, can feel \u201cas if something is falling out of your vagina<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The problem is that the mesh devices used in many of these surgeries may be harming the sexual and reproductive health of many of the tens of thousands of women who have surgery each year for prolapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You might be wondering, how many women are at risk for pelvic organ prolapse?\u00a0 Cigna<\/a> say the top risk factors are full-term pregnancies (which stretch the pelvic floor), the strain of childbirth, and having a hysterectomy (surgical removal of the uterus).\u00a0 On a recent episode of his TV show, Dr. Oz<\/a> shared the estimate \u201calmost 50% of women will experience some form or prolapse in their lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of women opt for prolapse surgery every year, and many of these surgeries have involved the use of mesh implant devices to support torn\/damaged pelvic floor tissue.\u00a0 As noted in a July 14th<\/sup> LA Times<\/em> article<\/a>, \u201cThe advisory was issued after an increase in reported complications involving the device.\u201d\u00a0 This article also describes complications as including \u201cpain and urinary problems,\u201d as well as, \u201cerosion, when the skin breaks and the device protrudes, and contraction of the mesh that leads to vaginal shrinkage.\u201d\u00a0 Back in 2008, the FDA\u2019s Public Health Notification<\/em> and Additional Patient Information<\/em> documents cited 1,000+ reports of these kinds of serious complications but considered them to be rare. \u00a0Fast forward to 2011 when these serious complications \u201chave jumped fivefold<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0no longer\u00a0rare<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, how does this impact a woman\u2019s sex life?\u00a0 The FDA notes, \u201cBoth mesh erosion and mesh contraction may lead to severe pelvic pain, painful sexual intercourse or an inability to engage in sexual intercourse.\u201d\u00a0 And, male partners of these women are also at risk: \u201cmen may experience irritation and pain to the penis during sexual intercourse when the mesh is exposed in mesh erosion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the FDA deciding to not remove the mesh implants from the market, did they do enough to protect patients?\u00a0 Some experts say, \u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0 Dr. Diana Zuckerman of the National Research Center for Women & Families<\/a> points out that these mesh implants have been used, \u201cdespite no clinical trials, no testing on humans to see if they\u2019re actually safe and effective<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 It is time to advocate strongly for research and development of pelvic floor surgical repair techniques which do not <\/strong>involve the use of synthetic mesh implants.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

*This article sheds very little new light on a topic\u00a0I wrote about over a year ago forMs.<\/em> Magazine<\/a> and blogged about back in 2009 \u2013 Gardasil is not simply the \u2018cervical cancer\u2019 vaccine<\/a> its initial branding advertised; it also offers several potential health benefits for boys and men.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, I\u2019ll admit it \u2013 ever the STD researcher, I was tempted to focus on the recent NYT article, \u201cA Vaccine May Shield Boys Too.\u201d* Instead, I dedicate this month\u2019s column to a recent news item that has not attracted a lot of attention:\u00a0the FDA issued an advisory warning against the use of mesh implants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1918,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21094],"tags":[851,33,3109,9084,431,176],"class_list":["post-2923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bedside-manners","tag-body","tag-health","tag-motherhood","tag-public-policy","tag-research","tag-sexuality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}