Women left in extreme pain from invasive hysteroscopy procedures hit out

Women have been left in extreme pain from an invasive procedure that’s been described as the “next big medical scandal”.

The Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopy (CAPH) has collated more than 3000 accounts of “pain, fainting and trauma during outpatient hysteroscopy” throughout the UK – including more than 40 so far from Scotland.

CAPH said female patients are being subjected to barbaric levels of pain and claim hospitals prioritise efficiency and cost-cutting over their needs and welfare.

The group believes the issue could become as bad as the vaginal mesh scandal, which saw women left in severe pain and with life-changing side effects after being treated with polypropylene mesh implants for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.

Katharine Tylko, of CAPH, said: “Severely painful outpatient hysteroscopy is the next medical scandal after vaginal mesh. Cheap, quick and easy-ish NHS outpatient hysteroscopy without anaesthesia/sedation causes severe pain/distress/trauma to approximately 25 per cent of patients.”

Margaret Cannon, from Rutherglen in Lanarkshire, told how she had an “excruciatingly painful” hysteroscopy at Stobhill Hospital in April 2020 without anaesthetic or analgesia.

She said: “I am a qualified nurse and midwife, so have good insight into how all the medical and nursing professionals failed me. I had been told to expect mild cramp and I kept thinking, ‘What’s wrong with me that I can’t tolerate the pain?’ I felt violated and assaulted.”

She felt so strongly about her experience that she complained. When she finally received a response, she said it “was dismissive and none of my points were addressed”.

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Source: Daily Record, 19 March 2023

See also our 'Painful hysteroscopy' thread in the hub Community.