New Zealand's Ministry of Health has told leading suppliers of transvaginal mesh products to prove the implants are safe or stop marketing them.
“We’re always cautious about the use of the word ‘ban’, but effectively the companies are agreeing no longer to sell these products ... in New Zealand from the 4th of January," the ministry's spokesman Dr. Stewart Jessamine said on Monday.
Urogynaecological meshes, sometimes known as transvaginal meshes, are inserted into women as a treatment option for pelvic organ prolapse (when the connective tissue securing the vagina and uterus to the pelvis gives way after childbirth), or urinary incontinence.
"The [New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority] response is effectively a limit on the supply of mesh for the repair of pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence," the authority said in a statement, adding suppliers had already been contacted.
"Most of [the suppliers] have already indicated by early next year that they will be taking the same steps here to limit supply, as they are in Australia."
The decision comes less than a fortnight after the devices were banned by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) after a review found "the benefits do not outweigh the risks these products pose to patients".
The TGA also cancelled single incision mini-slings to treat stress urinary incontinence due to evidence the risks to women outweighed the benefits.
But, unlike New Zealand, Australia's review found the use of urogynaecological surgical mesh devices for stress urinary incontinence and abdominal-pelvic organ prolapse repair was "adequately supported by the evidence".
An Australian Senate inquiry into transvaginal meshes is expected to report back in February next year.
It was established to find out exactly how many women have had transvaginal mesh implants and, of those, how many experienced adverse side effects.
Queensland associate professor of urogynaecology Christopher Maher has estimated more than 200,000 mesh implant surgeries have been performed in Australia to date.
Half of the women who experienced adverse physical and psychological side effects after receiving a vaginal mesh implant have also suffered from a relationship breakdown after the procedure, the inquiry heard in September.
Women who couldn't have vaginal sex due to ongoing sexual dysfunction from urogynaecological mesh "repeatedly" reported their doctors suggested having anal sex instead, the inquiry heard in August.
More than 100 women have written to the inquiry — here are the most heartbreaking submissions.