LLETZ and screaming pain: not normal

[Pleaseaddcaffine]

I had what should have been a very minor procedure yesterday to remove abnormal cells from my cervix. I wnat to stress I'm not a wuzz and recently had a root canal which was painless bar the inital injections and fine. I thought this wouod be similar.
It should ahve taken less than half an hour but took 2.5 hours. The suction machine didnt work properly and I had 3 times the normal level of anaesthetic in the end. The pain at two points literally made me scream out loud. I was bleeding so they had to finsih to seal the wound and were quite worried.
I want to stress that the staff were really caring, concerned and supportive but ultimately it wasn't at all painless.

Is there anything I should do at this point? I absolutly would no ever go through that procedure again or for anyone else to but equally the staff were great to me.

Sorry you experienced that. Have you been given any opportunity to give feedback or to talk through with someone what went wrong? At the very least you shouldn’t be in extreme pain while the procedure is taking place. I don’t know much about LLETZ. Do some people have a GA for that procedure?

I had a Lltez about 10 years ago. It didn't hurt at the time but I felt very unwell for about a fortnight. When I went to my excellent, feminist GP afterwards, she ranted about how gynae procedures are often much more painful and more difficult to recover from than the guidance leads us to expect, especially when they concern the cervix, which is extremely rich in nerve endings. So I'm not surprised to hear this. Make sure you rest and give yourself time to convalesce.

Yes you can opt to if you wnat but I was reasurred it would be fine and the vast majority are under local. Said similar to dental anesthetic which I've had recently for a painless root canal.
I had no pain at the earlier punch biopsy just discomfort so no reason to think there would be an issue.
No opportunity to discuss with anyone

Sounds like the local anaesthetic didn't work properly - it doesn't for some people.

I had mine done under a general as I was so anxious about the procedure.

Sorry that you had to go through that but hopefully they've removed what they needed to and you won't need to go through it again.

There was a fault with the machine, suction something (not a doctor!) she was very concerned and it was replaced imeditsly after me. So I tjink it was a combo of both and unfortunatly they had to finish up due to bleeding

Really sorry you went through this.

Really sorry you had that experience but I’m glad to hear the staff were supportive throughout. Do you think the anaesthetic wasn’t administered properly?

I had the same at a colposcopy. I don’t think the local anaesthetic had any effect at all (normally have a high tolerance to pain) but the horrid man doing the procedure categorically told me it didn’t hurt and that I was being hysterical. I’d never known pain like that before.

When it was over, I passed out whilst still lying on the bed and as I came to, two nurses were rushing towards me and he just shouted at them “deal with THAT will you” as he peeled off his gloves and left the room. It was really quite traumatic and I wish I had reported it but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind and just wanted to forget it.

When it turned out I needed LLETZ, they did it under general as they said I wouldn’t be able to handle it, so they know it’s not going to be completely painless, although I did have a large area of cells to treat.

I’ve since had my first filling and it seems I really don’t respond to local anaesthetic at all, I don’t know why. I dread the day I need more dental treatment.

I found my LLETZ quite traumatic - it involved removal of a coil that was agony and the impact of the anaesthesia on my whole body was horrible. I was crying uncontrollably but to be fair they did say they could stop and do it under sedation another time but I took the view that we’d gut this far I might as well carry on.

When I asked what happens if the “proof of cure” check reveals further abnormalities I was told that they do the LLETZ again. I said bugger that I’d rather have the full hysterectomy!!

Sorry other people had issues, I'm a bit shocked at how dismissive of pain some gyno procedures seem to be.

There's an enormous gender bias in medicine. Medical research is conducted on men, conducted by men and published by men. Medical students are trained by men, guidance is written by men, practices are developed by men. Female medicine is hugely misunderstood.