A Winnipeg woman is raising money to travel to the United States for a medical procedure she says she can’t get in Manitoba.
During a hysterectomy in January 2012, Christine Asprey had vaginal mesh inserted.
It is used to help rebuild bladders and stop leakage but Asprey says it has only caused her physical and emotional pain.
She says she can feel it scraping her when she moves.
She takes several medications and therapies but says they make her feel worse.
Her surgery was performed at the Health Sciences Centre.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says their doctors can remove the mesh but Asprey says that’s not what they told her and she is looking elsewhere for help.
“They can’t remove my type. I got the type, the TVT with the anchors,” she said.
She is trying to raise more than $30-thousand to visit a specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
On Monday, March 11 she was present for a protest at the Manitoba Legislative Building. Asprey says she hopes other women will heed her advice and not get the vaginal mesh.
“If I could turn back time, I would never have gotten this done,” she said, “And I’d advise anybody who’s thing of doing it, don’t do it.”
She said three women have already contacted her saying they had heard her story and cancelled their surgeries as a result.
Asprey is part of a lawsuit in Canada and the United States that includes a multi-million dollar ruling against Johnson and Johnson, the mesh manufacturer, in February.
