I was diagnosed with womb cancer in 2010 following a chest x-ray, a trans-vaginal ultrasound scan and, later, a hysteroscopy under general anaesthetic during which (what turned out to be) a grade 3 endometrial tumour was removed and sent to histology for analysis. Luckily for me, the cancer was early stage.
Aside from fingertip bruises around my right lower leg, a weird vibrating sensation in my right ankle - much like a mobile 'phone going off - and my legs feeling like rubber whenever I walked, there was little else to suggest the trauma my body had gone through whilst unconscious. I was only too glad not to have been awake for the hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsy experience.
Many other women are far from that lucky.
The Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopy (hysteroscopyaction.org.uk) has collected over 5000 horror stories from women subjected to hysteroscopy in an outpatient setting, often without fully informed consent or adequate - if any - pain relief.
A spokesperson for the campaign explained:
'Our grassroots community group has been campaigning for several years to gain women the option of safely monitored IV Procedural Sedation Analgesia for outpatient hysteroscopy (OPH / womb endoscopy) already routinely offered to all-gender NHS endoscopy patients, e.g., for colonoscopy.
Ten years ago the stat for severe pain during OPH was 1 in 4, now it's 1 in 3. The NHS Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme has set a target of 90% diagnostic hysteroscopies to be carried out in outpatients without sedation - a money saving decision. This 90% figure is based on the recommendation of ONE gynaecologist, a member of the British Association of Day Surgeons.
CAPH is aware that, as a result of this policy, some women are too traumatised to return to gynae clinics for important cancer checks - hysteroscopy is currently the main diagnostic tool for confirming the presence of womb cancer, meaning some women are dagnosed late.
It's scandalous and heartbreaking and urgently needs to change.'
If you're due to attend for a hysteroscopy and aren't sure what the procedure entails, or what your rights are regarding pain relief, you can find CAPH as follows:
https://www.facebook.com/HysteroscopyA/
@campaign_painful_hysteroscopy
Rose x
