Women are speaking out about the excruciating pain they endure during routine NHS hysteroscopies, with a petition calling for reform amassing nearly 70,000 signatures. Patients describe the procedure as 'barbaric' and say they were not warned about the severity of pain.
Procedure details and patient experiences
A hysteroscopy involves passing a thin telescope through the vagina and cervix into the womb, which is pumped open with fluid. It is used to investigate abnormal bleeding, diagnose conditions, or remove polyps, fibroids, and tissue biopsies. Patients are typically awake and told to expect only 'mild discomfort,' but many report unbearable agony.
Emma Jane Taylor, 53, from Oxfordshire, needed a hysteroscopy to investigate a polyp. She told the Daily Mirror: 'It felt like there was someone inside me with knives cutting through my body.' She blacked out from nausea and pain. 'Women are being gaslit into having these types of procedures that are so painful,' she said.
Dawn Lord, 52, from Hartlepool, underwent an unexpected hysteroscopy in 2023 without informed consent. 'Nothing was explained. They just said I'd feel a few cramps, but that was the biggest lie,' she said. 'I was screaming in pain and ignored.' She blacked out and later developed PTSD, requiring therapy. She launched a support group called Hysteroscopy Trauma, which now has over 200 members.
Lack of standardised pain management
Unlike colonoscopies and gastroscopies, hysteroscopy patients are not offered sedation as standard. Some are advised to take over-the-counter painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen. During the procedure, some receive only gas and air or a stress ball. Research led by the University of Reading analysed 4,644 Mumsnet posts and found a 'postcode lottery' in pain management across NHS trusts.
Susanne Cromme, lead author of the study, told the Daily Mirror that pain management is 'completely unstandardised across NHS trusts. Every hospital, every clinician just does what works best for them.' She noted that conscious sedation is being researched at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital but is not widely available.
Systemic failings and calls for reform
A report by the Commons' Women and Equalities Committee criticised 'medical misogyny' and a failure to take women's pain seriously. It found women with conditions like endometriosis often have their symptoms 'normalised' and pain 'dismissed.'
The petition calls on the Secretary of State for Health to overhaul hysteroscopy delivery, focusing on: advanced pain medicine training for all hysteroscopists; clear written information on risks and benefits; and dedicated funding to allow patients to choose between local anaesthetic, conscious sedation, or general anaesthetic.
Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet and Gransnet, said: 'This research makes clear that too many women are still experiencing severe pain during hysteroscopy... These are not one-off failures - they form a repeated pattern... Nothing encapsulates that more clearly than the expectation that women should endure avoidable pain during gynaecological procedures.'
