HSG

I know I skipped ahead to my surgery this past week...but I wanted to touch on my thoughts on the HSG. I know before each of these procedures I was googling and reading all that I could on the procedure itself and the pain I should expect.

As far as the HSG goes....I agree with what most of the posts I have read say....I think your experience is determined by who is performing the procedure. I had my HSG done in a hospital by a Radiologist. So without the technical terms I will basically tell you what is involved. You go into a room much like a Doctor's office. You take everything off from the waist down....you lie back...and for me...I basically bent my knees and held myself up on the table. They use a speculum much like the one used during a pap test, except way bigger....then they insert a catheter through the vagina and into the uterus. Now comes the fun part....a contrast dye is put through the catheter and flows through the uterus and fallopian tubes. Its used to check for abnormalities in the uterus or to see if the fallopian tubes are blocked. After the dye is injected the radiologist takes the x-rays and explains his findings to you. (which is nice to have some answers right away) So....did it hurt? Without putting the fear of God in to the readers of this blog....Yes it hurt. I have had PCOS for years and have felt that I have a pretty high tolerance of pain in the abdominal region.

With that being said....the radiologist who performed my procedure was a jerk! It would be like Urkel giving you a pelvic exam. I think he was uncomfortable from the beginning and in turn made me uncomfortable. When the dye was injected... the pain took my breath away...I made a very low moan....the Doctor then said to me....I told you it was going to hurt....Didn't I tell you it was going to hurt? Yeah... so my experience was bad mostly due to the fact that the doctor performing my procedure was uncomfortable with the female anatomy and was a man who had no sense of what it is like to be a woman! I think he felt bad cause he was a little more gentle when giving me the results. I was uncomfortable....he was uncomfortable...and you could tell the tech who was in there assisting him, didn't care for HIM either.

So they found a tumor at the very opening of my uterus. That is what I had removed this week. (ended up being a polyp) I will get the pathology back at the end of this week and all should be fine. He did say "my tubes are beautiful" lol so there were no blockages. My doctor called the next day and set up an appointment to have an SHG or Sonohysterogram, which I had done in the doctors office. I will cover that in my next post. (it will back up my claim that your experience is mostly determined by who is performing the test)

So overall the HSG...for me....hurt but was tolerable. I had some cramping for the rest of the day. I napped and took motrin. I did take some otc painkillers before hand but to be honest...it didn't make much of a difference. Please keep in mind I had an overall bad experience due to the person who was performing the test. Everyone is different and have different levels of pain tolerance. The most important thing is to have it done. I found out that there was an abnormality in my uterus that even if I were not planning on having children...needed to be taken care of as soon as possible! Please let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for reading!