Dr. Sophie Fletcher, a urologist at The Methodist Hospital, recently joined other reconstructive surgeons in Segou, Mali, to surgically treat 37 women living with vesicovaginal fistulas, a devastating condition suffered by many women in Africa and other third world countries.

Fletcher, who volunteered with a Physicians for Peace medical team in Segou, plans to be team leader on the organization’s next mission to Mali in 2010.

An important focus of Physicians for Peace is treatment and prevention of VVF and RVF (vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula). These serious complications of childbirth occur during prolonged childbirth, resulting in severe tissue damage in the mother’s pelvis and constant urine drainage.

"Poverty, malnutrition, poor health services, early childbearing and gender discrimination all contribute to obstetric fistula," said Fletcher, who is also Director of Research for the Methodist Center for Restorative Pelvic Medicine. "These women become pregnant at a very young age, must live with this condition, and then are ostracized by their community. Without treatment, their prospects for work and family life are greatly diminished, and they often are left to rely on charity."

Fletcher and other Physicians for Peace team members also had the opportunity to instruct local African surgeons regarding surgical techniques and post-surgical care of VVF.

This was the second such mission to this region. Physicians for Peace is helping with efforts to address this widespread health problem and to assist with work being done as part of the United Nations Millennium Villages Project. The core mission of the project is to help underserved regions of sub-Saharan Africa reach the Millennium Development Goals for ending poverty and improving maternal and child health by 2015.