My Experience of having a Hysteroscopy on the NHS

Photo by Vladimir Kudinov on Unsplash

I suspect if you have ended up here that you've been told you'll need a hysteroscopy, well firstly I want to reassure you that on the three occasions I've had one, I have found it a really easy procedure to undergo. Of course every person is different and we all experience things in our own way, so you'll make your own decisions when you have the procedure yourself, but for now, I'll share my perspective and experience.

What is a Hysteroscopy and why have one?

A hysteroscope is a long thing telescope with a light and camera that will be passed though your vagina and cervix to see inside the womb (uterus). The images are sent to a monitor so your nurse/ doctor can see inside your womb and record pictures of what they find.

You can have a hysteroscopy for a range of reasons, such as excessive bleeding, recurrent miscarriage, infertility, pelvic pain or unusual bleeding. Sometimes you also have one to actually treat a condition such as removing a displaced IUD (or embedded as mine was), or removal of small polyps or fibroids. On one occasion I also had one to take a small biopsy before I had an operation.

Each of my hysteroscopys have been as an out patient, so I just arrived at a set time and left after about 30/45 minutes.

How to prepare for the Hysteroscopy

• Personally I have found that all I need to do in preparation is have a shower so I feel comfortable and clean
• I make sure that I relax and don't get stressed before the procedure. I have definitely found, and my gynae nurse has told me too, that the more relaxed you are during the procedure the easier it is.
• Wear loose and comfortable clothes, as you'll need to remove everything from the waist down and you don't want fiddly clothes holding you up.
• My leaflet I was given advised that if you usually suffer with period cramping, it might be an idea to have a paracetamol or ibubrofen (whatever you normally take) to help with any cramping pains that you may experience
• You can't have a hysteroscopy if you are pregnant so you need to be aware of that and be taking adequate precautions
• Generally you do not have an anaesthetic before a hysteroscopy and thus you should eat and drink normally (some people may, everyone is different, but your healthcare professional will make sure you understand what is necessary for your circumstances)
• You may wish to take a friend or relative with you if you are nervous or just wish for some company. I have always gone alone and felt happy with this. 

My Experience of a TCRE (Trans-cervical Resection of the Endometrium)

Operating Team Image, thanks to Shutterstock

I was keen to write this post as there seems to be very little information on the web about women’s personal experience of having a TCRE. Many, many women suffer in silence with heavy periods and I want to share my positive experience of having a simple day operation that can make the world of difference to your every day life.

A Brief History

I shared in a post a few months ago about how I've suffered with terrible heavy, frequent and painful periods for around a decade now. I honestly cannot tell you why I put up with it for so long, I think it had simply become a part of my life and I'd learnt to live with it. It was only when I was on holiday in May last year and my awful bleeding stopped me enjoying the pool every day with my girls that I realised something had to be done.

I have the most wonderful GP and she sent me off to see the gynae specialist nurse at the Conquest hospital (Hastings, East Sussex) as thankfully she knew I had been suffering for quite some time, having been prescribed Tranexamic Acid and Mefenamic Acid for a few years, as well as having scans for an embedded coil, missing strings and cysts. I was given a hysteroscopy and straight away the specialist nurse could see there were problems and referred me for an ablation of the endometrium.

I was led to believe this would be done by a simple balloon being inflated in me and radio waves passing through to burn off the excess lining of my womb. This is apparently a really simple procedure that the nurse can do, however she told me as my womb was quite enlarged (she didn't think it had ever fully shrunk back after having my twins) that it would be better to be done by one of the consultants with a general anaesthetic.

Meeting my Consultant

When I met the consultant he reviewed my notes and said he didn't feel I was suitable for the ablation due to the size of my uterus, the thickness of my endometrium and also the presence of fibroids. He felt it would be better to do my surgery the old fashioned way, which would mean him using a hysteroscope to see what needed to be taken away and then burning it away accordingly.

He told me I was very overweight and this could make the surgery more complex and he went through the risk factors with the surgery and what could go wrong, telling me I had a 70-80% success rate for the surgery. With those odds, I was happy to progress as I just needed some respite from the constant heavy bleeding.

Reasons to be Cheerful - I've had my Operation!

Happy Thursday, I hope you are well.

I had to write this and get it scheduled on Tuesday as Wednesday at 7.30am I went to the hospital for my scheduled operation and who knows what time they would get around to doing it, so the last thing I needed was to be worrying about getting my R2BC post out.

Hopefully if you are reading this Thursday morning (or after) I am lying in bed recovering from the operation and the general anaesthetic that came with it. I'm secretly really looking forward to Thursday and Friday being down days where I just read, watch TV and get waited on!

On the one hand I was nervous for the operation as they always scare you when you meet the consultant in advance and they tell you what could go wrong but I have put my faith in God and know that whatever happens will come to good.

I'm so thankful that we have our NHS in the UK. Of course it isn't perfect and in some areas it is better than others but I've been lucky and had great service from the Conquest hospital and especially my GP surgery. I really can't praise my local GP's enough, they have fit me in at short notice and gone out of their way to make sure my operation can go ahead.

Light at the End of the Tunnel – We can Get Help! #aminumber5?

This was my view on our Spanish holiday earlier this year and whilst it was beautiful. It would have been
so much more fun to be in the water with my family.

{This is a collaborative post}

I remember being 12 when I headed to the toilet in the Happy Eater restaurant and saw that first flush of pink on the toilet paper. We were there as a family for Sunday lunch and the day wasn’t supposed to be any different to any other, but of course it was. In my mum’s words, ‘I had become a woman’ and on one hand I was very pleased to be growing up but on another I realized it was the start of something.

Not that my periods presented any problem for me for the first twenty years of having them. I was very regular, they were never too heavy and I just had a five day bleed. No, I certainly didn’t realize how lucky I was back then. The problems for me only started when I had my first child in 2003, after having JJ my periods returned far quicker than I thought they would considering I was breastfeeding and they didn’t just come back quicker, they came back much heavier.

Of course you can take care of the flow with the appropriate sanitary protection but what I found so hard to deal with was the pain. I can recall a day when I had to ring into work from my car as I had tried to drive there and I was doubled up in pain. I got myself to the doctors and asked to see someone and luckily they fitted me in. Mefanamic acid became my best friend and really did dampen the pain but each month there were still two or three days with very heavy bleeding (losing clots too) and almost unbearable pain.

I just learnt to live with it until I fell pregnant again about three years later. I’m really not sure why I didn’t seek more help, I just seemed to put up with the heavy bleeding and the pain, not knowing that I had menorrhagia, or heavy periods, a recognised medical condition.