HSG

I was more nervous that I'd anticipated, I've had one before and although I don't remember much about it, that's a good thing as it means it was not memorable and that's just how any procedure should be!

I don't think Google'ing helped either, I was awake until gone 3am this morning mulling things over. It turned out we had heavy snow here in Bristol last night and into the early hours and so I was expecting to have to cancel the appointment anyway, it was one of only a few times you will hear me sad to see snow! But, surprisingly when I woke up and peered out, it was mainly slush so the appointment was still on.

You may remember my fertility consultation with a doctor here in Bristol, back in June? He was not comfortable having anything to do with me because of surrogacy and him not being licenced (and I suspect a little predjudiced if I'm honest) to deal with it. Well, he wouldn't do the HSG for me so I had to do some shopping around and quick since I specifically wanted it done this cycle. I ended up finding somewhere reasonably cheap and in Wales.

So, across the Second Severn Crossing we went and left the snow behind and drove straight into torrential rain on the other side but we arrived at the Royal Glamorgan hospital in plenty of time.

I was feeling apprehensive but also so desperate to find out so that kept me from backing out. I had deliberately kept the date of the appointment to myself, incase I couldn't go through with it and just incase it was bad news - I would need time to process that first.

Anyway, we stopped at a shop just and I had stocked up on painkillers and sanitary items because anyone who knows a thing about HSGs knows that both are necessary for comfort!

I had been surprised to find that nurses do the HSG at this particular hospital, an HSG is usually carried out by a gynaecologist or at least, a senior radiographer but as the nurse explained, this test needs to be carried out within a small window of a woman's cycle and those specialists are booked up for a year in advance so it made sense to get them trained so they could be on hand to carry out such procedures. I thought that was really good and of course, it was nice to know that all the staff in the room would be women!

One nurse explained the procedure to me, I signed the consent form and was then given the first 2, of what will be 7 antibiotic tablets. This is to absolutely ensure there are no infections post-procedure. Having not long before swallowed down some painkillers and already feeling a bit nauseous anyway, I wasn't thrilled about it but know that it's for my safety.

I had to put a gown on and then went into the actual room where the HSG would be done. The other 2 nurses present were lovely too, very reassuring and interested in surrogacy which was sweet.

I will spare you the gory details but it was fine, a bit of cramping and she took a while to get everything in the right position. It was never going to be fun but yeah, it went as smoothly as I could of hoped for.

The nurse had told me prior that the x-rays are in real time so you can see what's happening, as it happens and that I could watch the monitor. I'm usually fascinated by such things but I didn't seem to have the stomach for it this afternoon, I did at the very end have a look at the still image that was still on the monitor by my head. Pretty cool to say I've seen my uterus and fallopian tubes!

I felt absolutely fine for about the next 3 hours and then the pain hit - cramps from the bottom of my abdomen to the top. I felt full and what felt like a combination of trapped wind and menstrual cramping. Ugh. So, I took some more painkillers and I'm sat with a hot water bottle on my stomach, it's definitely easing but still hurts and feels sore almost.

Oh and I've had some spotting since, which is completely normal but I don't recall having last time. Just one of those things, this time she definitely jiggled things around in there so that's probably why.

And that's that, my HSG experience!















































Oh wait, I forgot the outcome didn't I? ;o)

Tubes completely clear, normal reproductive anatomy. Go me - So whatever happens, or doesn't really, it's definitely not because I'm in any way a defective baby-maker!

I've been through so many tests during my surrogacy journey but I had to put those niggles to rest and to know if I was wasting my time (and any IPs time) so I don't regret the money or time I've spent on getting myself checked out but it's been emotionally draining at times, thank goodness that this was the final test that could of thrown things up but, it was clear so hurrah!!