Pain experience during saline‐contrast sonohysterography differs between premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Issue 5 (2nd September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Opolskiene, Gina; Radzvilaite, Simona; Bartkeviciene, Daiva; Ramasauskaite, Diana; Zakareviciene, Jolita; Drasutiene, Grazina
• Is Part Of: Journal of clinical ultrasound. Volume 44:Issue 5(2016:Jun.)
• Page Start: 267
• Page End: 271
• Publication Date: 2015-09-02
• Subjects: postmenopause -- women -- pain -- analgesia -- saline‐contrast sonohysterography -- ultrasonography; Ultrasonics in medicine -- Periodicals; 616.07543
• DOI: 10.1002/jcu.22291
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0091-2751

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Purpose: To evaluate whether the pain experienced during and after Saline‐contrast sonohysterography (SCSH) differs between premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Methods: Sonohysterography was performed on 133 consecutive women because of suspected endometrial pathology. Of these, 34 women were excluded for the following reasons: they had cervical stenosis; they did not complete or return a questionnaire; or tenaculum or cervical dilatators were used during the procedure. All women were asked to fill out a questionnaire to characterize their pain and mark their pain experience on a 100‐mm pain visual analog scale. Results: Data from the 99 patients included were used for statistical analysis. It showed that sonohysterography was well tolerated overall: 41% of the women did not feel any pain. Postmenopausal women experienced pain during SCSH more often than premenopausal women did: 71% (17/24) compared with 32% (24/75) experienced pain; p < 0.002; the median tolerance on the 100‐mm visual analog scale was 43. The character of the pain differed between the two groups of women: postmenopausal women more often felt sharp pain (42%; 10/24), whereas premenopausal women more often felt gnawing and/or crampy pain (21%; 16/75) ( p < 0.13). Conclusions: Postmenopausal women were twice as likely to experience pain during SCSH as premenopausal women were. Therefore, postmenopausal women might benefit from analgesia induced prior to the procedure. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 44 :267–271, 2016