I have just had a hysteroscopy on the 2 week wait pathway for post menopausal bleeding, which was carried out under general anaesthetic as a daycase procedure at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. I feel so fortunate reading the horrific stories of what other women have been through. The gynaecologist I saw at clinic carried out an internal examination and said there was no way I could have an outpatient hysteroscopy as he could immediately see that I had a stenosed cervix. This is extremely common in any woman who has gone through menopause or a sustained length of time without high levels of oestrogen. The cervix shortens and thickens causing the passage through to the uterus to become very narrow, sometimes closing completely. As most women who have hysteroscopies to investigate post menopausal bleeding are likely to have cervical stenosis I cannot understand why it is even attempted to do this in this cohort of women without anaesthetic.
At first I was disappointed that I would need a general anaesthetic with its risks and longer 'down' time. However it all went very smoothly. I did wake up in terrible pain which is not surprising as cervical surgical dilation is ALWAYS going to hurt. They gave me IV morphine and the pain vanished in minutes. They told me before the operation that if need be they would send me home with liquid morphine but I didnt need this and have not even had to take codeine which I was supplied with. Just taking ibuprofen or paracetamol for mild pain. No bleeding despite having a biopsy done.
All I can say is that women's bodies appear to be less valuable than men's. Can anyone imagine a man having any kind of internal procedure/biopsy done without anaesthetic and strong pain relief? It simply does not happen. Its time that these health inequalities come to an end. All human bodies should be treated the same, with adequate anaesthesia and adequate pain control.
