‘NO ONE BELIEVED ME BUT I KNEW MY BODY’

Sarah Palmer, 49, from Henley, recalls her experience with TVT mesh

‘I’m going to lose everything.’ This fear kept me awake for most of last summer. I run a Pilates studio and, as a single mum to two boys, I need the income. But the pain in my legs and pubic bone was so intense, I struggled to lie down, let alone teach. Then there was the ever-present UTI that meant sex with my new partner was out of the question. I had panic attacks so severe, my doctor prescribed strong antidepressants.

And for what? A few months earlier, I’d had a TVT mesh fitted to help stem the ‘little leaks’ I experienced when working out. The consultant pitched the mesh as my only option and I believed her. I had the procedure, then passed out from the pain. This was written off as a standard post-op niggle. But I am a fit woman who knows her body. Something was wrong. Finding the Sling The Mesh Facebook page triggered both horror and relief. I felt sick that there was a piece of plastic inside me that doctors weren’t trained to remove, and stupid for not researching the procedure before I’d had it done. But most of all, I felt angry. These women weren’t imagining this agony – and neither was I. Through STM, I met Dr Elneil, who explained that I’d had an inflammatory response to the plastic. In a complex four-hour operation, she removed the mesh lodged next to my bladder – and restored continence using my own tissue. Now, I’m teaching again, and hoping to rebuild my fitness. But thousands of others haven’t been so lucky and that fills me with anger – and determination to keep talking: to my clients, my friends, my sons. Knowledge is power, and shame won’t keep us quiet any more.