Relax Hokianga

17/09/2026

As a result of the petition, a team within the HealthNZ was set up to consider next steps in assisting women
harmed by Essure, and they engaged with Essure
injured women/wāhine and the Auckland Women’s Health Council.
Despite high hopes that HealthNZ was taking
this issue seriously and was actually going to do
something for the women/wāhine whose health has been destroyed by Essure, everything has gone quiet. When I emailed the leaders of the Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora Essure team recently to get an update on progress, no-one bothered to reply!"

Women are still coming forward with stories of harm and struggles of being taken seriously by doctors and gynaecologists.

Simeon Brown MP Casey Costello MP Paul Hunt - Chief Human Rights Commissioner David Seymour RNZ Chris Lynch Winston Peters Nicola Grigg MP when are these women going to get a fair response from our health system?

𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐙 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝, 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭!
It is pretty clear that women’s health simply doesn’t matter to the Government, health policy and decision makers, and those who hold the health system purse strings. The issues described in our feature article on the failures of the National Cervical Screening Programme are just the “tip of the iceberg” and epitomise the lack of attention paid to women’s health; the lack of priority placed on women’s health.

Read more in the August September Newsletter:
https://tinyurl.com/bdcjs4by

Mesh harm, Essure harm, far too many women are on long waiting lists for specialist appointments, especially gynae-oncology, and there is a significant shortage of women’s health specialists. For example, the only gynae-oncologist in the Wellington region left in November 2024, and with no plan to fill that vacancy, women/wāhine from the Wellington region now have to travel to Christchurch for surgical treatment.

The ways in which women’s health in Aotearoa New Zealand is underfunded, unrecognised and treated as irrelevant or invisible gets longer every week.

Despite women living longer than men, “women spend 25% more of their lives in debilitating health.” In Aotearoa New Zealand, while women/wāhine have a life expectancy of 83.2 years, their health expectancy was only 65.2 years, meaning that on average they spend 18 years in poor health!

We advocated for and got a Women’s Health Strategy under the Pae Ora (Health Futures) Act 2022. But where is it? What has it done for us?

When is HealthNZ, the Ministry of Health, and whichever parties are in government at any given time, going to give us what was promised – a health system that works for women!

15/09/2026

𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐙 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝, 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭!
It is pretty clear that women’s health simply doesn’t matter to the Government, health policy and decision makers, and those who hold the health system purse strings. The issues described in our feature article on the failures of the National Cervical Screening Programme are just the “tip of the iceberg” and epitomise the lack of attention paid to women’s health; the lack of priority placed on women’s health.

Read more in the August September Newsletter:
https://tinyurl.com/bdcjs4by

Mesh harm, Essure harm, far too many women are on long waiting lists for specialist appointments, especially gynae-oncology, and there is a significant shortage of women’s health specialists. For example, the only gynae-oncologist in the Wellington region left in November 2024, and with no plan to fill that vacancy, women/wāhine from the Wellington region now have to travel to Christchurch for surgical treatment.

The ways in which women’s health in Aotearoa New Zealand is underfunded, unrecognised and treated as irrelevant or invisible gets longer every week.

Despite women living longer than men, “women spend 25% more of their lives in debilitating health.” In Aotearoa New Zealand, while women/wāhine have a life expectancy of 83.2 years, their health expectancy was only 65.2 years, meaning that on average they spend 18 years in poor health!

We advocated for and got a Women’s Health Strategy under the Pae Ora (Health Futures) Act 2022. But where is it? What has it done for us?

When is HealthNZ, the Ministry of Health, and whichever parties are in government at any given time, going to give us what was promised – a health system that works for women!

14/09/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DoDXwqwGD/

04/09/2026

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora 9 years after recall and MedSafes request for patient minitoring, women should not be having to educate every medical practitioner and nurse they interact with about Essure.

Why has the medical profession as a whole still not been provided information that makes them aware of this device, its potential issues and the need for health monitoring.

Women are still fighting for health care that recognises and understands the complications of this device.

Simeon Brown MP Casey Costello MP David Seymour Nicola Grigg MP Winston Peters
this is not health care, at this stage it is simply state sanctioned medical negligence and abuse.

Woman's Day NZ New Zealand Woman's Weekly RNZ nzherald.co.nz this is a classic example of our health system gaslighting and ignoring women's health. Is this the benchmark for care in New Zealand?

13/08/2026

There are many Herbert Greens in modern gynaecology.

Decades after the Cartwright Inquiry, it’s painfully clear that the profession learned nothing from the experiment that created the HDC — and the HDC has forgotten why it exists.

Women are still unfairly represented, still dismissed, and still forgotten when
they become unwitting participants in what eventually reveals itself as the moral failings of our health system.

Ethics seem to matter only in research and experimentation. In medical practice, they vanish.

Women harmed by gynaecology lose their health, their ability to work, their security, their futures, their dreams — and sometimes their homes. They wake each morning wondering why they bother, slowly losing the will to go on.

Meanwhile, those who caused the harm carry on without consequence, protected by institutional silence and taxpayer funding.

They do everything possible to ensure ACC cleans up their mess — but never enough to ensure the women they harmed receive the care they deserve.

This is what systemic failure looks like. This is what institutional amnesia costs. And this is why women are still being harmed in Aotearoa New Zealand.

30/06/2026

The "Small Number" That Changs Lives
Why We Need Real Accountability in Gynaecology.

We’re told the risks are rare. We’re told it’s "just a small number." But when you are one of the women harmed by medical devices like Essure, you know the truth: those statistics are used to hide reality, not explain it.

​In New Zealand, the barrier to care isn’t just the injury—it’s the systemic refusal to acknowledge it.

​Too many specialists are unwilling to complete the paperwork for adverse events. By keeping these injuries off the record, the system effectively blocks us from accessing the ACC support and mental health care we desperately need.

​The cycle is broken - paperwork is often completed in ways that favor the provider, not the patient - complications are ignored, leaving us to navigate chronic pain without relevant, funded care - and consequently, the trust we place in those who claim to "help" is shattered, creating a legacy of mistrust that spans families and communities.

​This attitude doesn’t protect the medical profession; it damages it. By hiding the truth, they are actively choosing to stay out of touch with the reality of women's lives.

Gynaecology needs better, independent regulation to protect women. We need transparency, not damage control.
​If you or someone you know has been dismissed by the health system after a procedure, you are not a statistic. Your story matters. It’s time to demand a health system that prioritizes patients over reputation.

​

08/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18dteX9Cvr/

They told us it was 11 women.

We looked at the official briefing paper for New Zealand. Eleven people. That’s what the system recorded. That’s what the system believed.

But right now, in the Lobby For Good portal, we are reading the stories of more than 20 women.

And the number is growing every single day.

This is the story of Essure. The device they were told was safe.

She was told it was simple. A permanent contraception option. No major surgery. No daily pill. No more worrying.

So she trusted the advice. She trusted the doctor. She trusted the system.

Then her body changed.
The pain started. The bleeding became heavier. The fatigue didn’t go away. Her hormones felt wrong.

And when she asked if the device could be the problem? She was told it was unlikely.
It’s just stress.
It’s your age.
It’s your hormones.
It’s something else.

For years, she carried the pain and the doubt at the same time.

That is the hardest part of the stories coming into our portal. It’s not just the physical symptoms - the removal surgeries, the hysterectomies, the years of pain.

It is the absolute exhaustion of not being believed.

It is trying to explain your own body to a system that has already decided the answer. It is paying for appointments, scans, specialists, and treatments, while being told the device is fine - even when your life is falling apart.

When one woman says it, the system calls it an "isolated incident." When ten women say it, they call it a "rare complication."

But when dozens, hundreds, and thousands of women say it? The question changes.

It’s no longer: What happened to this one person?
It becomes: What did the system know, and when did they know it?

Essure was recalled in New Zealand in 2017. The FDA is still monitoring reports of pain, heavier periods, device fragments, and perforation. The manufacturer still states the device was not defective.

But the women in our portal know the truth of their own bodies.

A medical device is not just a product. It is trust placed inside a human body. And when that trust breaks, people deserve more than silence. They deserve records. They deserve answers. They deserve a system that treats lived experience as actual evidence.

This is what Public System Survival Notes Series is about.

For when the process is the problem.
For when the complaint goes nowhere.
For when the official answer does not match the lived reality.

One story can be dismissed. But a pattern cannot be ignored.

If Essure has affected you, or if you have been left trying to get answers from a health system that did not listen - you are not alone, and your story is evidence.

Tell your story. Add to the pattern. Help us ask the questions they don’t want to answer.

Drop your story in the portal here and sign our petition:
👉 https://lfgportal.lobbyforgood.nz/lobbies/harm-linked-to-essure-medical-devices

(Note: We do not make medical findings. We listen to stories, map the patterns, and help everyday people ask better questions of the systems that govern them.)

NZ Briefing Paper:https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/2024-09/H2024038651%20Briefing%20Advice%20on%20an%20active%20petition%20relating%20to%20Essure%2C%20a%20permanent%20contraceptive_0.pdf

PUBLIC SYSTEM SURVIVAL NOTES: Episode 01

Medical Abuse Gynaecology New Zealand

08/06/2026

Had Essure? Know someone who does? We're gathering data on the use of this device in New Zealand to help lobby for a better process and outcome for managing adverse experiences of medical devices.

If you, or someone you know has Essure, please fill in the attached survey to help us help you.

National - We are also hearing from women who say they have been harmed after having an Essure device. If this has happened to you, please log your experience. We are ... | health

03/06/2026

Wow, the propensity for harm in women's health in this country just never stops. The last time silicone plugs were used, (Adiana) they caused serious complications for some women and were removed from the market.

And here they are, version 2.0 being "trialled" in New Zealand.

Winston Peters has sentenced more women to harm by gynaecology with his removal of the TGA.
Casey Costello MP here we have yet another permanent product going into women's bodies with no oversight, no regulatory monitoring, and just like Essure and mesh, likely to have no path for treatment when it goes wrong.

Take a bow New Zealand First harm from this product is on you. You should be held personally liable for any harm that happens before you act to provide monitoring and care pathways for injuries caused by the medical fraternity.

Men, do your women a favor and just get the snip. It won't devastate your life in anyway close to the ways this industry devastates 1000s of women annually from nefarious devices.

https://www.contemporaryobgyn.net/view/fda-grants-ide-approval-for-fembloc-non-surgical-permanent-birth-control

31/05/2026

Just a reminder when you're getting yours out to cut firewood this winter.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/why-were-chainsaws-invented.htm