Womens Gynae is still barbaric

This is so interesting @RedToothBrush . I actually just started a thread on this! Is her book the best place to start or has she written other articles?

Dr Margaret McCartney who wrote the patient paradox, won't take part in cervical screening herself for various reasons. She makes the point of you have symptoms you absolutely should get checked though.

Given her analysis of the harms / considerations about informed consent / analysis of risk profiles / how data is presented in a biased way and how she breaks all this down in various ways, she's a pretty heavy weight voice to say that.

Yes, agreed about mammograms. I had to have one as part of recent investigations and the positioning for the sideways images was so painful I nearly yelled out. I think it’s important to make procedures as comfortable as possible if you actually want people to take part in preventative screening, but that doesn’t seem to be C a consideration.

The author of “Age of Diagnosis” (I’m generally not a big fan as I think she’s oddly fixated with physcosomatic illness) did make some interesting points in her book on screening programmes for women. I’m not sure about cervical smears but I think the levels of false positives for breast screening are really high-so your risk of being treated when whatever they find would have been harmless is pretty high. Perhaps someone on here has stats…

Some of these stories are fucking awful.

they just don’t give a shit do they. It’s just women making a fuss again

You don’t know how much that means reading that. Thank you for replying

To add salt to the wounds it didn't even work 😫

I had no idea this was an option tbh but I feel like it should be standard or at least offered to you as standard.

i had this done about 4 years ago and just told the consultant I would only consent if done under GA and there was no problem with this request. They will not offer it but you 100% are able to demand it.

I think that if a male GP had told me that something gynaecological "wasn't that bad" I'd've been hard pressed not to lamp him one.
Or at the very least ask him, all sweet and nice like, "Oh, so you've been through menopause/had a hysteroscopy/colposcopy then?"

Oh and to add to this apparently they USED to do this under GA!

I had an endometrial ablation a few months ago, this is where a device is put in to your womb, expanded and then they burn away the lining of your womb. You have a hysteroscopy immediately before and after too. It isn't done under GA, I have no idea why because it is exactly as brutal as it sounds!

I always go completely silent when I'm in pain so I closed my eyes and shut down, the (male) doctor said afterwards "I wish all the women were like you" and it did make me think; if they know it's so painful and many women can't tolerate it then why is it not done under GA?!

I had a stent removed by a Dr and was reluctantly given pethidine. What followed felt like assault and was utterly awful in every way. I was broken for a long time. I’ve had many rounds of IVF, 3 miscarriages (one included a manual evacuation to save my life without pain relief), and nothing has been as bad. The Dr wanted to hurt me. The way he spoke to me was horrible and the way he handled me even worse. It was ten years or more ago. Two nurses were there and did nothing.

It's not baffling at all. It's clear misogyny. Centuries thereof.

I wasn’t given a choice and didn’t realise GA was an option (or the norm in many places) until a midwife appointment for my current pregnancy where she assumed it was under GA and I had to correct her.

The gas and air definitely made all the difference - the experience affected me quite significantly but it wasn’t the procedure itself so much as the trauma of the loss that hit me all over again (they’d tried medical management first so there was a while in between) which I think would have happened with a GA too. I had decent enough aftercare (stayed in the hospital for a couple of hours after for monitoring, tea, toast, biscuits in a private room with a family member etc) and left on my own terms when I felt ready.

With the LLETZ it was the procedure itself that was traumatising and I drove myself back sobbing. The contrast really shocked me.

They put me under general for a few procedures I had to have a few years later as I told the GP I would not have them done while awake given my experiences.

I've had so many nurses and Doctors look down on me when I claimed I was in pain. Even had one complain my cervix wasn't where it was supposed to be.

I had to have 1 hysteroscopy biopsy, and 3 colposcopy cervical biopsies as they kept coming back unviable (no fault of my own). I was a nervous wreck in the ebd, and heard the supporting nurse say to the other nurse "Oh she's nervous." Well no shit sherlock, I've been back multiple times. I don't want to be talked to like I'm in the hairdressers. Honestly imagine men going through something like this, they'd get every pain relief going. I still don't think my cervix has recovered yet!

nothing has changed it seems.

when I was in labour with my oldest son, 30 years ago, I laboured for 4 days, not dilating, on nothing but gas and air. I was scared, exhausted, starving and traumatised by the pain.
His heart rate was dropping so they decided to put a probe in his head.

when they placed the green cloth over my legs to do it, my addled exhausted brain though they were going to operate on me and I was frantic … screaming, I’ve got no pain relief, don’t hurt me…and blacked out.

before I lost consciousness, the doctor slapped my thigh hard and told me to ‘get a grip!’
I had PDSD for years afterwards.

women are routinely treated with contempt…when we’re at out most vulnerable, and it’s not changing.

If referred for hysteroscopy or even a colonoscopy you have the right to demand a procedure to be carried out under GA and if this is your choice make sure its written clearly on your records. You do not have to endure this sort of pain.

when I was 17 i was raped which resulted in a pregnancy which ended in a miscarriage. Admitted to hospital I was told by my GP I would have a D n C which was standard then for anyone miscarrying. that afternoon a doctor came round the ward pulled the curtains round and told me he had to get rid of any foetus and blood clots. thinking it would be in theatre he told the nurse to hold me down then pulled the items out of me with forceps no pain relief. I was so traumatised resulting in a breakdown which ended in me going to a mental hospital staying next to a mother and baby unit which did not help. when I panicked and lost my shit I got slung against a wall by a male nurse resulting in a broken nose and shoulder.
Didnt mean to hijack but meaning to say even though that was a few years ago throughout my life anything to do with 'women's things' ie pregnancy birth hysterectomy etc has been nothing less than barbaric humiliating and painful

I got the hell out of there and did try to complain when I felt a bit stringer but was fobbed off
'He was the only doctor on that day' (utter bollocks) and 'it can't have been that bad'
I didn't have the strength to take it any further
It took up my whole head space and I just couldn't do it anymore
If that makes me weak,then so be it-it certainly felt like nobody cared

I went with a friend last year and there’s no way i’d do that without anaesthetic. My friend was in really bad pain for a couple of hours after. She sadly died from an unrelated / aggressive cancer 6 months later so not sure if that contributed in any way towards the pain, but it was horrific to watch.

I'm also opting out of all smear tests. It's painful, and they only test for HPV now which my sexual history means I definitely don't have. I've weighed up the risks and it just isn't worth it.

It's barbaric that women are expected to go without pain relief. The stories of women being held down are actually sickening. I've held down my toddler for an IV line put in and that was horrendous enough. I can't imagine doing that if it could possibly be avoided.

I will also do home HPV tests once I'm discharged from my current, potentially torturous round of treatment.