Pain experience during saline-contrast sonohysterography differs between premenopausal and postmenopausal women

To evaluate whether the pain experienced during and after Saline-contrast sonohysterography (SCSH) differs between premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

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.

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).

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.