Hysteroscopy felt like insides were being 'clawed'

Wendy McLean was due to start her seventh round of IVF when her doctor said she needed a hysteroscopy – a procedure to examine the inside of her uterus.

“It was sold to me as a smear test basically. I thin narrow camera up through your cervix. It’ll take minutes. You won’t need pain relief. You’ll be absolutely fine,” she said.

Wendy, 38, took over-the-counter pain killers before the outpatient procedure at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in case it was uncomfortable, but this didn’t prepare her for what happened.

“It felt like getting a hot poker, like getting my insides ripped out. I think I described it to somebody before as like being clawed, like sharp nails, just ripping at my insides.”

Wendy says she lost consciousness twice, vomited and asked for the procedure to be stopped.

It was only when searching online she discovered thousands of other women had had similar experiences of painful hysteroscopies without anaesthetic.