In the Exam Chair: Office Hysteroscopy Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe office hysteroscopy, the camera examination of the womb carried out awake in a clinic room. People came for bleeding after menopause, heavy periods that used eleven pads before lunch, spotting after a caesarean, a coil left in far too long, failed embryo transfers, repeated miscarriage and years of trying for a baby. The writers include a seamstress in Kingston, an operating room nurse who had assisted at hundreds of the procedures, a teacher in Manila arranging a half day off, a woman caring for a husband with dementia, a trans man looking for a clinic that would use his name, and women living with vaginismus, panic disorder and a fear of needles. Places run from Cork to Johannesburg and Bengaluru to Kansas City. They describe a skipped breakfast and a faint, a softening tablet worse than the procedure, watching the screen, a four-thousand-dollar deductible, eleven calls to a medical aid, and a fibroid finally seen after years of being told heavy periods were normal. Some felt almost nothing. Others found it very hard: one woman wishes she had been offered sedation first, one was told to get dressed when the camera could not pass, several had normal results and still no answer, and some faced the wait with cancer in their own or a mother's history.

Who it's for

For anyone booked for a hysteroscopy or wondering whether to ask about one, and for the partners, daughters and friends who sit in the waiting room or drive them home afterwards.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 279 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.