Mine was 3 years ago at the Cotswold Suite at Southmead Hospital, Bristol. The first I knew that I was going to have a hysteroscopy was when the booking in clerk rang me to arrange it. She assured me I would have a LA, as did the consultant's secretary when I rang her to check it out. I was told I might experience mild cramping, so to take paracetomol or iboprufen an hour before my procedure. I had already had a painful biopsy and found an internal scan to be very uncomfortable, so I was a bit nervous. My husband accompanied me, but I was taken away from him and left to sit in a freezing cold corridor for half an hour over my allotted time. All I could hear were women laughing loudly, so I assume the staff were on a break. When I went in I explained that I was nervous of the pain and the hysteroscopist said it might be a bit painful, but like period cramps (they kept telling me this all the way through) This was the first I was told that they don't do a LA and I was told that lots of reasons why a GA was not a good idea - I had never considered a GA before this. I had previously had pre-cancerous cells removed under a LA and although this was uncomfortable it was bearable. I started to become very nervous indeed. They said me on a chair with a bucket underneath and pumped water into me. It was incredibly painful and uncomfortable with immediate effect. They agreed to turn down the pressure and carried on with the hysteroscopy. Apparently they couldn't get the tube in, so they had to give me a LA to my cervix to numb the area to use a speculam, but this still hurt. I didn't want them to stop as I thought there was no alternative and I was scared of the possiblility of cancer, although I was in agony as they removed polyps with tweezers and took the biopsy. By this time I was crying and yelling out with pain, but all they kept saying was "yes it's like period cramps, isn't it" No it wasn't. It felt like someone cutting into me and as if my womb was going to explode. She kept saying there was just another one (polyp) she needed to get and yet when she had finished she said I would need a MyoSure procedure to remove the fibroids, which she assured me would be less painful. Afterwards I felt shook and completely violated. My husband was shocked when I told him and I stayed curled up at home for days, not wanting to speak to anyone. I did complain straight away via email but it took months for them to reply. In the meantime my MyoSure was cancelled. I later found out that the nurse hysteroscopist had recorded my hysteroscopy as being 'well tolerated' by me! This leaves me to believe that the actual statistics of people having a painful procedure may not be accurately recorded. I was never offered any other kind of pain relief and don't want a GA due to my weight. I was offered an apology, but the damage has been done and I'm terrified of ever needing anything like that ever again.
