I had my HSG yesterday and thought I would share my experience here since I’m a dummy and forgot to take ibuprofen before.

I live an hour away from the imaging center and I remembered when we were about 10 minutes away that I forgot to take any ibuprofen. I work in radiology so I pretty much knew what to expect as far as the test goes, but I’ve seen lots of different reactions to the injection so I was a little nervous at this point. My husband had to work so I brought my mom along in case I needed her to drive me home.

When I got to the imaging center, I had to have my temperature taken and then after signing in they gave me some consents to sign and I had to fill out the contrast questionnaire. I waited probably around 15 minutes before they pulled me back into a dressing room and told me to remove everything from the waist down and put a gown on. Then it was probably another 15-20 minute wait.

When I got in the room, they told me to lay on the table with my butt down towards the very end and put my knees up. They didn’t have stirrups but it really wasn’t too bad because after the catheter was in, the doctor let me put my legs down. The first part was basically like a Pap smear. The speculum was super uncomfortable to me, but it literally took less than 2 minutes. I don’t think I even felt her put the catheter in. So then after she pulled the speculum out, she told me I could relax my legs and had me slide up towards the top of the table. When she first started pushing the contrast in, it wasn’t bad. She took a few pictures then pushed some more in and it started to get kinda crampy. It was pretty intense but not the worst thing I’ve ever felt. The worst of it was after all the contrast was in and I was really hoping she was almost done, but it was really intense cramping and a ton of pressure in my pelvis, and then she said everything looked great and we were done.

I do wonder what it would have felt like had I remembered to take the 800mg of ibuprofen as recommended, but all in all it wasn’t the worst thing ever and only lasted a few minutes. I would recommend bringing a panty liner for after. They offered me one but I brought my own. All the contrast comes out and it pretty much feels like you’ve peed yourself lol. I did have some lower back and pelvic cramping for about an hour, and then milder cramping off and on throughout the day.

TLDR; 3/10, would recommend taking ibuprofen first.