Need Advice: In-Office Hysteroscopy vs Outpatient Hysteroscopy for Paragard Arm Removal

[kara75]

Went to the Ob/Gyn this morning to get my Paragard taken out. An arm broke off upon removal (surprise, surprise!). My doctor tried to grab the arm but I was covered in sweat and hurting so she said she’d prefer to try a hysteroscopy with general anesthesia for me.

I got home and started looking into insurance. Turns out that having a hysteroscopy (I assume with local anesthesia) in an office setting will be $60 while a hysteroscopy with general anesthesia will be $3000.

Has anyone had a hysteroscopy with local anesthesia and can you tell me how it went? Was it painful? Was it quick? I want to see if I can get my doctor (or another doctor) to save me $2,940…

So many doctors never consider cost and it is so annoying!

p.s. already reached out to a law firm for a free consultation because i’m so mad at Paragard that this has happened to sooooooooo many people.

 

[pninaelkayamauthor]

@kara75 I had an IUD removal with general anesthesia and after several attempts to have it removed in office I will NEVER allow someone to insert anything through my cervix while I'm conscious ever again. I would call around to other offices, and work with your insurance to see if there's maybe a different office that it could possibly be cheaper at. Some women say that hysteroscopy is not super painful but I knew from my IUD insertions that it would be, as that's basically the same procedure. If you ultimately do decide to just do the local anesthesia I would advocate for some type of stronger pain killer or some type of anti anxiety/muscle relaxer. And a cervix softener.

 

[kara75]

@pninaelkayamauthor So even with local anesthesia to numb your cervix, there is still pain??

 

[pninaelkayamauthor]

@kara75 I can't speak to that part but if you look around this sub you will see plenty of iud insertion stories where local was used and it seems like a toss up of if that actually helped or not. Some people say it helped a ton and was basically painless and others say it didn't help at all and was worse due to the injection of local. That's why I'd recommend also asking for some type of cervix softener as well as some type of anti anxiety medication which most gynecologists are willing to prescribe for procedures like this.

 

[kara75]

@pninaelkayamauthor Also i’m confused, did you have a hysteroscopy in office before the one with general anesthesia or no?

 

[pninaelkayamauthor]

@kara75 No, just normal removal attempts with the alligator clamps. A hysteroscopy is just a camera being inserted through your cervix. If you had an awful insertion, or it was really painful when they tried to remove the broken arm of the paragard then you will likely have similar sensations during the hysteroscopy.

 

[kara75]

@pninaelkayamauthor Right - I understand what a hysteroscopy is but that’s without any kind of local anesthesia/cervix softener. So it sounds like I’m going to be requesting those things to see if I can just do the hysteroscopy in office, rather than doing one with general anesthesia. Some (most) of us just don’t have the privilege of spending $3k on surgery.