HSG - Hysterosalpingogram

Sorry for two medical posts in a row! I thought this should be it's own separate post in case anyone is searching for this topic...

In my consultation apt Dr. Slater recommended that I do an HSG test. I wasn't sure if it would be necessary or not but since we were kind of doing an "all in" approach for this cycle I figured we should go ahead and do the test now - better than to wait, have this cycle fail, then do it and find a problem that we should've fixed in the first place, does that make sense?

The HSG test looks to make sure your tubes are clear and gives you a picture of the uterus. Sometimes just the act of pushing the dye through your tubes can help clear them out and women will have success getting pregnant soon after they have the test. (They inject the dye through your uterus and into your tubes so they can take an x-ray of it)

I had scheduled an apt to do mine at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. Like I said before I spent hours on the phone trying to figure out how much this would cost and sounds like I would need to meet my $1000 deductible first and then pay another few hundred dollars. Neat. If I planned on having a baby in this calender year or going to the hospital for other stuff I might be interested in meeting my deductible but not really. So when a friend of mine just had an HSG the week before and chose to do it at Riverwoods Imaging Center I was interested in why. You can go to Riverwoods and just pay in cash for this procedure for $459. You have to agree to not send a claim to your insurance - you just pay that price and you're done. This is much less than I was planning on paying and so this worked out great! I called on Monday and was able to get in on Wednesday, which was my cycle day 8 and I needed to do it on day 6-10 so I was glad they could fit me in.

The procedure itself only takes about 5-10 minutes. I had to wait a few minutes, then change from the waist down, and then the assistant got everything ready. The doctor came in and within a few minutes he said, "well, I think I found your problem. Well, one of them..." Obviously I was very interested in what he found! He said there was some scar tissue in my cervix making it very narrow - this definitely could pose a problem for sperm trying to reach their destination! He was able to remove that in the process and then finish the test. His "preliminary" report to me was that my tubes looked open and it all looked good.

I will admit - it was kind of painful. More than I expected. There is definite cramping that comes with the procedure. It was uncomfortable... and then you might have some spotting and leaking afterwards so they said to bring a pad. I took some ibprofen and I think that helped. It wasn't anything major and I went about my day in a normal fashion but yes, it did hurt.

Overall I'm very glad I did the test. The fact that he found something *wrong* with me and fixed it (the scar tissue) is great and knowing that even just the sheer act of performing the test might help pave the way is good. And only spending $459 on it as opposed to $1500 helps a lot too!