Relax Hokianga

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

25/05/2026

There should be an international "gynaecology dodges accountability" day.

22/05/2026

To Paul Hunt - Chief Human Rights Commissioner and Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission

Does the state’s failure to provide a specialized pathway for victims of an approved-then-recalled medical device breach the right to the highest attainable standard of health for women in Aotearoa New Zealand?

It has been nearly a decade since concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of the Essure device were raised internationally and locally, leading to its withdrawal from the New Zealand market in 2017. Despite this, patients continue to suffer from chronic pain, autoimmune reactions, and device-related complications without access to proper clinical pathways, diagnostic clarity, or state-supported redress.
​I believe this situation constitutes a breach of human rights

For many, the physical damage caused by the device has been compounded by a "gaslighting" effect from the healthcare system, which has consistently minimized the lived experience of these patients. This creates a secondary harm that is arguably a breach of the right to be treated with dignity.

​While health is not a basic right in the simplest terms, the state has an obligation under international treaties (such as the ICESCR) to provide the highest attainable standard of health. By failing to provide a clear, empathetic, and effective pathway for the treatment of Essure-related injuries, the current health infrastructure is failing in its duty to prevent harm and ensure equitable access to health services.

21/05/2026

Given Essure has a post implant complications rate of over 20%, I do not believe for one moment that only 2% of women who received this device in New Zealand face serious complications.

What are our MPs doing for women's health in this country?

What is Nicola Grigg MP doing as the "minister for women"?

What is Simeon Brown MP doing as the health minister.

Looking at you Winston Peters with your focus on vitamins at the expense of those injured by medical devices.

What are Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora doing about Essure injuries. Where's your information site for doctors to refer to when they see a patient with Essure?

They are not just failing injured women, but also the very health practitioners they refer injured women to for help.
How can a GP monitor a patient's health, when they have no information to monitor them with.

Gynaecology cannot be allowed to operate as a closed shop when it refuses to manage the fallout from their own actions.

Our politicians and so-called health providers implicate themselves in ongoing harm by refusing to acknowledge the carnage being churned out in the name of women's health.

Remember that at voting time. You never know when they'll unashamedly and irreparably injure a woman in your life, all in the name of "health".

12/05/2026

Experienced GPs are warning that primary care in Aotearoa is reaching breaking point, with doctors reporting unpaid work, burnout, and a funding model they say is no longer sustainable. Now some are actively discouraging medical students from becoming GPs at all. With Budget 2026 less than three

12/05/2026

Health NZ – Waitaha Canterbury In 2017, a permanent contraceptive device called Essure, a device that was used in your public hospital, was recalled.
At the time, MedSafe requested that implanting specialists contact and monitor the health of the device recipients.
This monitoring did not happen then, and it is not happening now.
Women in Canterbury are seeking help to find specialists aware of the device and for information that they can take to their GPs.

Nine years after recall, this is simply not good enough.

What is Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora doing to help women your hospital has harmed? What are you planning on doing? Because the nothing that you are currently doing is causing more harm, and doctors are left simply treating symptoms that only surgical intervention can fix.

Is this what you pass of as a caring health system?

30/04/2026

The Talbot Mills Research poll commissioned by Kaitiaki HauoraKaitiaki Hauora sends a clear signal: the health system is under unsustainable pressure!

Across the political spectrum, 85% of New Zealanders agree the system is not being supported at the level it needs. This is not a marginal view; it is a clear expectation that public healthcare must be properly funded and strengthened.

The Health Consumer Advocacy Alliance supports these findings. They reflect what we hear daily from health consumers and health professionals: a system under strain, and a clear need for sustained investment in patient safety, prevention, and frontline care! https://kaitiakihauora.nz/media/85-percent-support-rise-in-public-healthcare-funding