Hysteroscopy with epidural anyone? I really don't want general anesthesia if I can avoid it

[Littlemiss3489]

For years i had spotting between periods before i had my kids. Every period around my fertile week i would lightly bleed for a day or two between periods. 2017 i found out i had a small uterine polyp. I didn't want to go under to remove it plus the doctors didn't seem concerned. So we left it. i got pregnant with my daughter in 2018 everything went great. 9 months after given birth i spotted after my first period. got checked out. uterine polyp was still there, but again i left it. i had no spotting what so ever for the longest time. August 2020 got pregnant again with my son. A few days after having my first period i spotted again. i got checked out with ultrasound again and it seemed like the polyp went away last year. They couldn't find any polyp in my uterus. I was so extremely happy.
Now almost a year later from that last ultrasound(my son is 19 months). I had two episodes of pink/red discharge after my period during my fertile week. I got an ultrasound and my polyp is back or maybe it was always there just the ultrasound last year didn't pick it up. I am not sure.

No one seems concerned once again but it's bugging me. I have health anxiety and always think what if. it doesn't help now my mom has had precancer removed recently from her uterus and cervix. it makes me think should I have it removed even though it can come back. I just want to be sure at least once it isn't precancer or cancerous. I just don't want general anesthesia and i have read about getting epidural or spinal instead of sedation or GA. I know that there are risks but I handled epidural pretty well during both births..I'm wondering if it would be the same if I got a epidural the hysteroscopy to remove the tiny polyp.

did anyone have both a epidural and a spinal?(I only had an epidural twice)is one more painful?
did anyone have a epidural or spinal for hysteroscopy?...were you completely numb for the biopsy or did you feel that? i don't want to go to sleep or feel loopy but i definitely don't want to feel a thing.
with epidural you can move your legs but spinal I know you can't..that kind of freaks me out a bit. but I could get past that if I'm alert and not high or drowsy. Was the epidural or spinal completely paralyzing you?

I am just trying to get idea of what the experience might be like If I chose a spinal over GA..my mom says I definitely don't want nothing during a uterine biopsy because she had a biopsy awake and almost jumped off the table.

Has anyone done a hysteroscopy with uterine polypectomy with an epidural they use during labor?

Is this actually offered as a choice at ypur hospital?

Do what’s right for you. Different people need different things. I had 3 hysteroscopies and uterine biopsies with paracetamol first but nothing other than that, and drove or walked home after tea and biscuits. It certainly wasn’t comfortable but I’d prefer that than recovering form sedation/ anaesthetic/ spinal. I go to my happy place in my head and then get fascinated by the inside of my uterus on the screen. Nobody gets points for bravery so ask for what you want.

Not sure but I have read it can be an option if your gynecologist does it. I will have an appointment soon to find out..

i get really anxious too but had a hysteroscopy ten days ago with local anaesthetic and it was absolutely fine. I never had VB’s as both of my kids were c section, so my cervix needed opening with the speculum. It was fine, in-fact my last smear hurt more. You’ll be ok x

I had a polyp removed, a biopsy and the mirena fitted during the procedure, it wasn’t any worse than just having the scope x

I wasn't offered any kind of pain relief when I had a hysteroscooy OP. It wasn't very nice, but wasn't the worst either.

I just took over the counter pain relief as advised, prior to, and after my hysteroscopy and polypectomy. I don't think anesthetic is routinely offered because hysteroscopies are carried out during outpatient appointments. The over the counter pain relief was sufficient to enable me to resume my normal activities straight after.

It can be done with spinal so long as there’s no contraindication. Wouldn’t normally be done with epidural. Most people probably get discharged quicker after GA than spinal though (but would still usually be an easy day case procedure). The surgeons often have a feel for which hysteroscopies can be achieved with out anaesthetic (or just cervical local) - may be worth asking what they think?

Thank you everyone hopefully I can find out soon how it would be done

I wasn't offered anything. I researched and found that I could have GA but there were no intermediate options (I would have preferred sedation).

Given the choice of nothing or GA I opted for GA. It all went fine.

Hope it goes OK for you and your results are good x

After a very painful and botched attempt at a hysteroscopy I had one under GA. Recovery was quick and easy.
The trust I went to offered nothing between a local and GA, I asked for sedation and was refused.

thinkfast · 21/11/2022 19:57
I wasn't offered any kind of pain relief when I had a hysteroscooy OP. It wasn't very nice, but wasn't the worst either.“

same here. Three now, polyp removals, no pain relief offered. Uncomfortable at worst, though everyone’s different of course.

I've recently had a hysteroscopy and mirena coil fitted at the same time.
No pain relief given, or even offered.

I thought I had an epidural when I had an emcs, but I was paralysed from the waist down (so maybe I had a spinal?). It wasn’t bad at all, couldn’t feel anything bad a bit of uncomfortable tugging. The leg paralysis didn’t bother me either, it wore off fairly quickly after. Obviously, this is a different procedure so I’m not sure how comparable it will be.

Is there a good reason you don't want GA, like a bad reaction before? Because it's very safe and you wouldn't be under for long so you will come round pretty quickly afterwards. You'll need someone to take you home a couple of hours later and before that you just rest for a bit.

I'd have it under GA, no question.

I had no pain relief with my hysteroscopy. No one warned me what it would be like. It was fairly unpleasant but a lovely nurse held my hand and chatted to me. I was pretty shaky afterwards. But it was ok. I certainly wouldn't have wanted the risks associated with a GA unless it was essential.

What is emcs? And did it feel like how a epidural would feel during labor(if you had one)? To me that felt like when you are numb to getting fillings done. It wasn't bad. Could you still move your legs?

I don't know why I'm worrying so much though well I do know..I'm a hypochondriac and my mother had precancer removed from her uterus so I'm freaked out. My polyp potentially shrunk though. It went from 1.4cm to 0.6mm (we will know for sure if I go and get a sonohysterogram soon..if I can ever see a gynecologist) hopefully this is a good sign that there is nothing to worry about and it goes away. I'm going to try acupuncture while I'm waiting to see my gynecologist. Studies have shown to shrink polyps and fibroid so mine is already super small. I'm hoping it works.

I have been under 3 times for other surgeries. No reaction so far. My mother never had reactions either until recently. One time after surgery she was hard to wake up but her face swelled up too. So they think that was a allergic reaction. The second time they just couldn't keep her awake. They think that was a overdose of anesthesia. So im afraid that will happen to me and if I have opportunity to do it numb but alert I just prefer it. I'm scared of not waking up.

Yes they can be done under spinal. (Not epidural - spinal is a single shot injection which gives a shorter acting complete pain relief whereas an epidural is used for pain relief for a longer period)
If you’re going to the operating theatre for it, rather than be done in outpatients, speak to the anaesthetist and discuss your options. The time to discharge for a general anaesthetic vs a spinal is about the same depending on how quickly the spinal wears off and you can safely walk around.

Hi,

I had this procedure under a spinal. I was petrified of the idea of a general, and when the anaesthetist came in to discuss the operation with me (like they do on the morning of a procedure) I just happened to say I wished it could be a spinal, and he sort of shrugged and said we could do that if I liked. It was fine, bit weird being awake (you could tell the theatre team was used to people being unconscious as they kind of ran out of small talk 🙂). After the procedure which was about 2 hours I was wheeled into a recovery area where most of the patients were being woken up from general anaesthesia. That was a bit boring until they brought me a magazine and eventually some toast and coffee. I remember feeling quite sick (I always vomit after anaesthetic, either type) and getting up to use the loo while I was still numb (which was a weird experience!). It was fine.

PS I could see the screen with the camera they inserted into my uterus throughout, which was interesting at first but eventually got boring!

Oh interesting, with the spinal. Did you lose all sensation of your legs or did it feel numb to the touch like when you get a epidural? I had epidurals and that's all it felt like was numb to touch but I could move my legs. I'm also afraid that if I can't move my legs I'll panick..even though I want the spinal more then GA. I can't win I always worry about something. If it's like the epidural in sense I can move my legs I could for sure handle it

I’ve had two hysteroscopies with no pain relief. The first was quick and painless. The second was horrific and I was screaming and crying with the pain. The doctor was awful. Told me it was my fault it was taking so long and causing pain because I was overweight. Hell will freeze over before she gets anywhere near my minge again.

It can be done with a spinal/GA/nothing. A spinal causes dense numbness and heaviness in the legs. The duration of that numbness & heaviness depends on the local anaesthetic used and that depends on how long the surgeons think the procedure will take. It can take longer to recover from spinal than a GA if a longer acting local anaesthetics is needed. An analgesic epidural wouldn’t provide dense enough anaesthesia for an operative procedure (which is why we don’t use them for operative procedures on labour ward). An analgesic epidural can be ‘topped-up’ to provide anaesthesia (which feels exactly the same as having a spinal) on labour ward if we know it’s been working well in labour. It would be vanishingly unusual to site an epidural for hysteroscopy because a) it takes too long to get it in and working (and as much as we do try to individualise care, we do have to be conscious of healthcare economics) and b) they’re not reliable enough for this sort of thing. The anaesthetist covering the list will be able to make a plan with you based on your individual risk factors for GA/spinal. HTH.

Oh interesting so your basically paralyzed from waste down like you won't beable to move your legs at all? My procedure should only be 5-10 mins max since i have one very small polyp. I'm hoping they would do it with a spinal.