Notice my clip art…. Needless to say, those who told me that the saline sonogram was a piece of cake in comparison to the HSG, LIED to me !
Dr. Lee at East 95th Radiology, a part of Westside Radiology, was very calming and kept me sane as he tortured me.
The saline sonohysterogram is a test to look at your uterus to make sure the lining is healthy and there are no abnormalities.
The nurse initially does a urine pregnancy test and then inserted a large wand inside to take a look at my uterus. She took a ton of pictures and I could see them on the screen. The doctor came in and looked at the pictures and then we began.The doctor first cleaned me with iodine – COLD, then he inserted a speculum followed by a catheter. The catheter HURTS going in. Next the doctor removed the speculum and inserts that big ole wand thing again that looks like a medical vibrator ! No Bueno !
The catheter has a balloon on the end of it that the doctor inflates so that the uterus goes from a tiny opening to the size of a 10 wk old fetus. After the inflation of the balloon, the doctor then starts to squeeze saline inside so that they can see the inside of the uterus. As the saline goes in, all hell breaks loose in the pain department ! I wanted to crawl into a corner and curse.
The doctor and the nurse took a bunch of images and showed them to me as we went along. The test was much shorter than the HSG test. I learned that I have a small uterus (My OB GYN told me that previously) and that my uterus is perfectly healthy and I had follicles on the left and the right and was currently ovulating !! YAY !!
After the test, I had a little cramping and all that saline started coming out 😦 I was given a maxi pad and instructions for care. (No Sex… No Tampons)
I left the radiology department and headed to the lab to have them complete my pre-IVF blood work that my IVF doctor ordered. The lab tech took about 10 tubes of blood so I assume I still have some left LOL.
I did take Tramadol an hour before the procedure and it did NO good ! I don’t think any pain reliever other than a epidural or squirting novocaine in the V-jay jay will be effective !
Plan B Chronicles 
Sorry to hear this was so painful. I had the opposite experience – a lot of warnings that it would be brutal and then, in reality, it hurt, but not as much or for as long as I was expecting. If I’d been told it was a piece of cake, I’d have been pissed because it wasn’t. But at least that’s over and you can cross one more item off your bucket list!
Curious what this mock transfer is that you’ll be doing? My RE doesn’t do that.
I admire your confidence that IVF #1 will work. I’m gonna borrow some of that positive thinking over the next few weeks as I head down the path you’ll hopefully be on in March. All the best on your journey!
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I guess I should state that I have NO tolerance for pain at all, lol. It was not that long a procedure (thank God!) as the HSG was.
The mock cycle is where you take the meds a month and they bring you in for monitoring and measure the follicles etc and make sure you produced enough eggs. If the measurements are not where they want them to be, they will increase the meds for the next cycle in which you do the retrieval/transfer.
I am doing acupunture twice weekly with a renowned chinese medicine fertility specialist and taking a boatload of supplements and herbs. I am very healthy and praying that the first IVF will take. The doc suggested starting with IUI but I want more bang for my buck and to get it over with lol. Baby dust to you !!
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