A recent overnight trip to the Lake District marked a significant milestone for Dawn Lord and her husband, Steve, as it was the first time in two years Dawn felt well enough to leave their Hartlepool home. This prolonged period of suffering stemmed from a routine medical procedure, a hysteroscopy, in May 2023, which inflicted such intense pain and trauma that it triggered a breakdown.

Hysteroscopy, undergone by approximately 60,000 women in the UK annually, is generally regarded as a routine, low-risk procedure by the NHS. It involves using a speculum to open the vagina, inserting a hysteroscope (a telescope-like device with a camera and light) through the cervix, and then pumping fluid to distend the womb for better visibility. While intended to investigate polyps, unexplained bleeding, or infertility, this process can cause pain.

Alarmingly, hysteroscopies are typically performed in outpatient clinics, often without pain relief. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists reports that one in three women experience severe pain, rating it at least seven out of ten. Dawn, 52, a mother of one, was never warned of this. Referred after a routine blood test showed raised CA125 levels and scans revealed a polyp, she anticipated a regular check-up. “I wasn’t advised to take anything beforehand, not even paracetamol. But it ruined my life for almost two years,” Dawn recalls, describing the pain as