YOUR VIEWS
Two weeks ago we published a damning investigation into the terrible pain thousands of women face when undergoing vital hysteroscopies – a procedure to examine the inside of the uterus to detect cancer and other abnormalities. After we revealed some of the specific horrors individual women faced during this procedure – a test which The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists found left one in three women in severe pain, rating it at least seven out of 10 – you came to us to tell us how you too had been impacted.
Campaigners believe the NHS is failing to inform patients of the risks, or their options for pain relief.
Your experiences of feeling ignored, dismissed and shamed after feeling pain in hysteroscopies and other procedures was manifest. We thank you for sharing and we decided to devote these pages to giving you your voice.
We don’t want to stop. We want to hear more. We’d like to build as many voices as we can and support the work of activists including the Campaign Against Painful Hysteroscopy. Here are some of your responses and stories:
I just wanted to thank you for this piece. I’m in tears reading it. I had an awful experience shortly after my mum died of womb cancer – I was panicking and so distressed, with no pain relief at all and a person just getting really irritated – he just kept shouting “You want this done or not?!” I eventually walked out. Had it done later under a general anaesthetic. Worst about it was being judged by other women. Even my wife, who was with me, was laughing. It’s so brutal and there’s this sort of toxic alpha femininity you have to live up to. It’s so validating and emotional to read your piece and know that I’m not just fragile. Thank you so very much.
Anonymous
This is exactly how women are dealt with when they have a colposcopy [cervical examination] procedure. They say you may feel “mild discomfort”, but I can tell you it isn’t. You still feel like you’ve been lied to, treated like a farm animal and denied any kind of pain relief when they are cutting pieces of your cervix out to send for sample testing. Disgusting. They wouldn’t do it to a man. The whole thing is shocking and patients feel violated afterward. Women’s health is dealt with very poorly indeed. Laura
Thank you for covering the hysteros-copy experience. Knowing you’re not the only one to have suffered is helpful. I have had many more of these procedures a
