Eleven years ago, Justine Watson was working as a psychotherapist. She was married, caring for two sons with special needs (aged 10 and 16), living a sometimes stressful but rewarding and active life. Since her boys’ births, she’d had some incontinence – she peed when she laughed and wore a pad to the gym – but she was coping. Then her world came tumbling down.
“I had my 40th birthday in 2010 with my girlfriends in Bali,” she tells The Weekly. One night, she wet her pants (again) and her girlfriends said, “You know there’s a surgery for that.”
Back in Australia, Justine looked into it. She saw two specialists. The first scared her off. The second said, “Don’t worry, sweetie. You’ll be absolutely fine.” And she trusted him.
She remembers that consultation clearly: “He didn’t say he would insert a medical device that, once it’s in, can’t come out again; he didn’t say it’s made from polypropylene, that it causes inflammation, that scar tissue will form around it, that it will become part of your body and if your body rejects it, you are going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble. He said none of that.”
So Justine went ahead with what was supposed to be a very simple, 20-minute operation. “He said, ‘This is going to change your life’,” she remembers. “And it did, but not in the way he told me.”
Esta historia es de la edición June 2021 de The Australian Women's Weekly.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición June 2021 de The Australian Women's Weekly.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
