It’s been a busy time since the last update; not just here in NZ, but also in Australia and across the world in The Netherlands.
MedSafe and ACC were invited to submit on the petition, and they have all but literally said nothing to see here. We know nothing, we did nothing, it’s not our job, and proceeded to throw gynaecology under the bus. What’s funny with that is that the certifying body of gynaecology, RANZCOG, put out a statement claiming that it wasn’t their job to inform patients either. They too want information from our ministry of health.
I later discovered that prior to the petition even closing, the Associate Minister for Health, Hon. Casey Costello, submitted an official information request to HealthNZ requesting an update on Essure. What did she get? Basically, everything I’ve been saying since I started speaking out. Just like MedSafe, ACC, HDC and RANZCOG, we did nothing, we know nothing, it’s not our job.
https://www.health.govt.nz/information-releases/essure-recall-notice
Turns out it was nobody’s job to let the women of New Zealand, who received the permanent intrauterine contraceptive device Essure, know that in 2017, under a cloud of growing injuries and a “lack of sales” by specialists, this device was withdrawn from the market. It was nobody’s job to tell them that, as per MedSafe, their health was to be monitored, and it was nobody’s job to provide GPs and specialists with information with which to monitor the health of these patients.
Nobody must’ve been very busy doing nothing. Were they hiding behind the couch somewhere? When is somebody going to tell nobody to do their effing job?
How can “we know not everything is right for everybody” translate into, “oh you’re in THAT camp, off you fuck and live with it”? When did the medical profession stop First Doing No Harm? Are we just acceptable collateral damage? Injured by medicine and just to be put out with the rubbish?
Recently, a small group of Essure injured women has been quietly meeting with a group from HealthNZ to hash out a response to this debacle. Due to a lack of regulation and record keeping, there is no way of rounding up every woman who received the device. There is also the added difficulty in ascertaining whether, or not, a patient even has this device, because in some cases the device was not even noted in medical records.
It’s believed there were 651 women who received this device, at least the public system.
What isn’t certain is among all the women in New Zealand who thought they’d had a “tubal ligation surgery” between 2002 and 2018, is who of all these were the 651 who unfortunately got Essure, and how many did so without their knowledge. How many still don’t know?
This has been one of my points all along. MedSafe asked for monitoring of recipients’ health, and the medical profession, predominantly Gynaecology, and especially implanting gynaecologists decided to keep quiet, ignore the problem, and gaslight anyone who did approach them, by telling them that “no one else has complained so it must just be in your head”.
It was only a matter of time before all those women found each other and figured out what, and who, was the likely cause of their sudden health demise. Because, unfortunately, everywhere you turn for help, you are advised to “see your GP”. This is exactly why support groups form in the first place. Patients have to turn to each other when there appears to be no hope.
However, trying to convince a doctor that there is something wrong with you, beyond “normal pain and bleeding”, even if you are fortunate to know you have the device, or if it is listed in your records, can be a lengthy and torturous process. When a doctor is so inclined to listen, they find no information on the health sites they are prone to visit, because no information has been released in New Zealand for doctors to educate themselves with. The patient becomes the educator.
Imagine having to do this for almost a decade, only to find out a device you didn’t know you had was likely to blame for your health demise. This has always been my second point, and in some cases the driver of the petition. If you are going to send us to our GPs for help, at least have a heart and give the GPs some information about this dangerous and insidious contraceptive device.
The health bodies in Australia have published some helpful information for doctors and patients, and this is exactly what is needed here.
ACC have something to answer to here too, in that, they are only as good as the information they are plied by the specialist feeding it to them. How do you get any opinion, never mind a second one, when the medical profession simply does not have ready access to this information. If they don’t have it, how does ACC? How do you get a second opinion about an organ they have, in most cases discarded in the rubbish? How do you proved the state of an implanted device that pathology didn’t even bother to mention in your post op lab report? Yes, this has happened! How do you prove your injuries, regardless of the fact they are, in a lot of cases disappearing post removal of the Essure device. If doctors and specialists are not taking proper notes, no one is bothering to take a medical history, and no one is capable of joining the dots, is it any wonder that ACC decline over half of the Essure cases they have received, and when they do accept a claim, often its solely for surgery, as if the life changing drama ends there.
What happens when a woman loses her uterus, I’ll leave to Nora Coffey at HERS Foundation to describe. I hear she’s planning an appearance on an online radio show, so that will be well worth a listen. I will update in the comments when that takes place, so follow this blog. What I can say, from experience, is that it is painful having your pelvis stretch to it’s outer limits, it’s painful to have your back stretching as your ribs sink down onto your hips, it’s often exhausting, life can be truly unbearable sometimes, but even that is an improvement on life with Essure for myself and many others.
Women are not advised to get physiotherapy after a hysterectomy, and this itself is abhorrent. We’ve injured you; we’re going to injure you further and not tell you about it, and once again, we’re not going to do anything to help you. We quite literally do not care. Without your injuries we don’t have jobs. Please do come back for more.
No! The wanton destruction that gynaecology causes women cannot be kept in the dark for eternity. No! women do not deserve to suffer for some psychopathic medical unprofessional’s ego. This barbarism and butchery of women by medicine needs to stop.
Make Essure the last time this profession injures with impunity in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the verdict is out in Australia, and the judge has agreed with the manufacturer that all women bleed and experience pain, and that all sorts of things make this pain and bleeding worse. Of course, it’s never the device or medication because, let’s face it, where would they be if we didn’t need the medical profession?
Where to from here? Well, while we’re waiting to find out if the outcome in Australia will be challenged, the women in the Netherlands have banded together and their class action is set down to begin next week.
Along with the injured women, 17 medical insurance companies have joined them in their fight against Bayer, in order to recoup the costs they have faced in implanting and removing these devices. Of course, in most cases, the cost to remove far exceeds the cost to implant, not just for the specialists and doctors, but for the women, who most often lose their uterus to the cause. We’ll be watching this one closely also.
The article is in Dutch, however I read it using the translator in the Chrome browser.
So, quite literally, although there seems to have been quite a bit of activity in recent months, there is still absolutely nothing to see here, or at least not anywhere in our health system if you, or someone you know, is suffering with adverse Essure symptoms.
When will the women of New Zealand be told that this device was recalled almost eight years ago and that MedSafe requested their health be monitored?
Essure Aware NZ 
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