Tag: hysterosalpingogram

Period after HSG and miscarriage

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If you are not into reading about periods and period blood you should stop reading this now and come back tomorrow when I will be talking about less gross things in life 🙂

This is my first period since my recent Hysterosalpingogram – HSG – test.  This is also (probably) my second period since my miscarriage.  And it’s a weird one!!  It is on schedule – for which I am truly grateful for (isn’t it funny how we celebrate the little wins on this journey!!).  But this period is weird so far.  The pains are different, I cannot explain what is different about them, they don’t hurt so much, but the pain ‘rumbles’ inside me rather than the typical’radiating’ and ‘sharp’ pains I get from my normal period.  The blood is a heavy watery-pinky-mucusy mix.  Normally I get dark brown or red, thick and clotty blood.

So I got onto my friend google (like you do in a situation when weird stuff happens to your body).  I extensively searched for possible causes and whether this is normal or something I should call the nurse about.  My biggest concern is that my uterus lining won’t be up to scratch in preparation for our next round of IVF.

The best and corroborated explanation for this unexpected weirdness is that it may be an indicator of anemia or low iron stores and/or unbalanced diet/suffer from poor digestion.  Both of these things are plausible in my case, but can be easily resolved with some supplements.

I was worried it could be associated with the HSG procedure or the miscarriage, but it seems to not be the case.  So nothing to  worry about or to call the nurse about specifically, but I will mention it when I speak to her next.

Crisis averted, thank you google!  Now….pass me the liver and spinach 🙂

The dreaded HSG

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I am not going to pretend to be brave here.  I am actually a little bit nervous about tomorrow’s HSG procedure.

The Hysterosalpingogram – AKA the HSG – is an x-ray procedure to check whether the fallopian tubes are open or blocked, and if the uterus is normal.  Iodine dye is inserted into the uterus to allow a contrast to be seen on the x-ray.  It allows the doctor to see on the free flow of the fallopian tubes and any abnormal lining of the uterus.  The procedure is relatively quick -about 5 minutes.  But for me it really was painful.  I took 800mg of Ibuprofen an hour before the procedure as instructed – it still hurt.

For my first test I was naive and had no clue it might be painful, so I wasn’t nervous.  But now, knowing what I know now!  I AM anxious!  The crappy thing is that Chris isn’t allowed in with me, there is nothing more I would like than for him to hold my hand whilst the dye is injected and I feel that burning cramping sensation run through my body.

When I called the clinic to make my appointment the receptionist who now recognises my voice (OK so I bet they don’t have that many Brits as patients) asked me why I hadn’t had an HSG already.  I pointed out I had one in January but I had to have another one after the possible ectopic pregnancy thing and how much I was dreading it.  She was very sweet and apologised, her tone also changed to be more somber for the rest of the call.  Bless, it was nice that she sounded to care. It must be a hard job working in a fertility clinic – it must be a bit bi-polar with so many highs and lows everyday.

Perhaps I will do some meditation to help me relax a little before hand :-s

On the positive side about this – once we have the results of this test we can go ahead and hopefully firm up plans for IVF round 2.

My HSG X-ray with my retroverted uterus (it's hard to see because it's hiding behind the catheter)

My HSG X-ray with my retroverted uterus (it’s hard to see because it’s hiding behind the catheter)