How long do biopsies after a colonoscopy / gastroscopy take?

[Polarbearflavour]

I had the above done about a month ago - no results as yet. My GP says she has heard nothing (didn't even know I had them done!) and I've spoken to one of the consultant's secretaries who said she couldn't see anything on the system.

My follow up with the consultant is in December. They asked for me to be seen this month as a follow up after my last appointment with them but the bookings team said December was the first appointment they had.

My colonoscopy looked normal they said but as I am suspected of having a form of IBD due to my symptoms they took biopsies. GP did say she thinks it may be microscopic colitis.

In the meantime, I have all these symptoms but can't get any medication for them.

A lot of hospital labs are struggling with their workloads at the moment but really your results should be through by now. I would ring the endoscopy department and see if they can find out what's happening. I used to work in endoscopy and we used to tell the patients it was three weeks for histology results.

Sorry you've got to wait so long for your outpatient appointment, waiting times are awful at the moment.

I had mine between 2-3 weeks later?

I'd phone the endo department - hopefully they haven't lost the findings (happened when I had a blood test twice in a row).

I'm a Gastro sec and that sounds like a long time for biopsy results to me. Unless there is a backlog at the hospital. Was it your own consultant's secretary you spoke to? Maybe ask if
you can speak to the consultant themselves as you still have symptoms and aren't able to wait until December. If you called me/our department you wouldn't be expected to wait until your follow up appointment in December to wait for medication if you need it. It's also bad that the GPs haven't been informed. Gastro should have informed the GP of your tests and let them know what the initial results were. I'd chase up again if I were you.

Thanks for the replies.

Well my lovely GP has been chasing up for me...turns out the biopsies are normal but I have to go back to the hospital for a sigmoidoscopy as when they re-reviewed my images they found a swelling in the rectum....here we go again!