The Australian government has issued a national apology to women affected by a vaginal mesh scandal, acknowledging decades of “agony and pain”.
Mesh implants are at the centre of health scandal affecting women around the world, prompting lawsuits in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.
Earlier this year, an Australian inquiry acknowledged that the devices had ruined the lives of many women.
It also found that some patients were ignored when they reported pain.
More than 700 women in Australia have joined a class action against one manufacturer, Johnson and Johnson, but lawyers say up to eight thousand women may have been affected.
The Senate inquiry estimated that about 150,000 women in Australia were fitted with mesh implants in the past two decades, in many cases to help treat complications post-childbirth.