Introduction to Painless Hysterosalpingography (HSG)

The Department of Radiology of Beijing Maternity Hospital has recently launched a new practice of painless hysterosalpingography (HSG) examination, which enables a painless procedure at the same cost as the traditional examination. Traditional hysterosalpingography involves placing a balloon catheter into the uterine cavity, filling up the balloon and injecting iodine water under pressure, which can cause a lot of pain to the patient, and the pain can cause mental tension and cramps to the patient, which in turn can cause the test results to show false positives of bilateral tubal obstruction in some patients with otherwise patent tubes, making it impossible for the patient to find the real cause of infertility. Some patients even undergo combined hysterolaparoscopy to explore the uterine tubes for further examination, which can cause further damage to the body. In addition, the traditional operation requires uterine cavity manipulation, and many patients will produce iodine water retrograde into the myometrium and parametrial vessels, while increasing the patient’s symptoms of allergy, pain, postoperative bleeding, transient hypoglycemia and hypotension, and increasing the risk of uterine cavity infection. The latest painless hysterosalpingography technique developed by the radiology department of our hospital is to place the hysterosalpingography catheter against the ectocervix and gently push the injection. During the operation, the patient only feels a slight soreness and swelling in the lower abdomen. Because the procedure is performed without entering the uterine cavity, the procedure is reduced, saving examination time and reducing the chance of infection. In addition, because this approach reduces pain, pseudo-obstruction of the fallopian tubes due to excessive tension and muscle spasm of the patient basically does not occur.    By comparing the above two modalities, the new painless hysterosalpingography technique has greatly improved the accuracy of the examination with reduced pain and will bring more patients the gospel!