Theresa Bartram said that she was left unable to have sex with her boyfriend

A woman has said that surgery for incontinence left her unable to have sex with her partner because her vagina ‘bit’ his penis.

Theresa Bartram, 50, had the operation to lift her bladder using a plastic mesh, but it was fitted too low and eroded through her vaginal wall.

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Mrs Bartram, from Brighton, said that she had not had sex for seven years until she had the operation that involved the use of a plastic mesh sling called a transvaginal tape

(TVT) to stop her leaking.

She said that the sex was better until two years later in 2009.


She said: ‘It was like it had grown teeth. His willy was bright red and spouting blood. There was a big red stain spreading between us on the sheets.

Teresa Bartram had the surery to improve her sex life (Picture: Durkin Photo Services

‘After that he was scared of my lady garden and approached it as if it was a Venus flytrap and he was a fly.’

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She was adamant that that the injury was caused by the mesh but doctors assured her everything was fine.



They avoided sex and six months later they split up. She stopped eating as her confidence dropped again and avoided getting involved with anyone else so that she wouldn’t injure them.

Eventually in 2015 her vagina began leaking a green, foul-smelling puss and the mesh was removed urgently.

It had eroded through the belly button side of her vaginal wall, causing her to grow an abscess which became infected and turned septic.

Her vagina began leaking a green, foul-smelling puss and the mesh was removed urgently (Picture: Photo Features)

The mesh had secured itself with cartilage to her pelvis, first shrinking then turning hard.

‘It felt like razor-sharp teeth, hence why it had ripped a chunk from my boyfriend’s willy,’ Theresa explained.

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She was finally told the mesh had been fitted too low, which is why she had injured her partner’s penis and suffered such awful complications. The removal left her completely incontinent and her vagina is now numb.

At just 50 years old she fears she will remain celibate forever and is campaigning to have the treatment banned across the country.

She said: ‘I was told this simple procedure would cure my incontinence and give me more confidence on the bedroom, but it has ruined my life.

What is TVT TVT is a controversial procedure that was banned in Scotland, but is still available on the NHS, for people with stress incontinence – the leaking of small amounts of urine, sometimes when coughing, laughing, sneezing or doing exercise. For women, tape procedures may be recommended to stop the problem by providing support to a sagging urethra. In TVT surgery, a mesh tape is placed under your urethra like a sling or hammock to keep it in its normal position. She had vaginal tape for stress incontinence (Picture: Rex Shutterstock) The tape is inserted through tiny incisions in your abdomen and vaginal wall, with the procedure normally taking around 30 minutes. Around 13,500 women have the operation annually on the NHS and it’s the most common way to treat stress incontinence. However, there has been an increase in the women coming forward with post-op problems. The surgery was suspended in Scotland two years ago, where around 400 lawsuits are ongoing. The mesh is also used in hernia operations, so men are also at risk from feeling the adverse affects.