My GP kept delaying referring her patient with womb cancer symptoms for hysteroscopy. When I finally asked why I wasn't being referred, she explained, "you'd freak out at an NHS gynae clinic". She knew what experience a childless woman with severe dysmenorrhea could expect. She told me a general anaesthetic would cost me over a £1,000. I fought hard over several months and countless medical appointments to be allowed an NHS GA which showed stage 3c womb cancer. Fantastic NHS surgical care & masses of radiotherapy worked. In the local Macmillan gynae cancer support group I help run - over the last 7 years I've yet to meet a woman who had anything other than a 'brutal' outpatient hysteroscopy. Yes - throughout the NHS some women do have excellent experiences but most clinics are staffed by under-skilled or over-confident operators, under pressure to perform hysteroscopy as quickly and cheaply as possible. Yes - there are slighter higher risks when hysteroscopy is performed under GA. So we need the NHS to fund, train and safely resourced and monitored procedural IV sedation with analgesia for hysteroscopy. It exists in Sheffield, Newcastle and a few other hospitals. This would bring the patient experience of endoscopy of the womb in line with endoscopy of the colon, stomach etc. It would give women the option of having a pain-free and relatively stress-free experience. We need CHOICE of pain-control according to a woman's preference and medical need. Not just 'Trial by Outpatient Hysteroscopy' with 'vocal-local' hairdresser chit-chat then tea and biscuit for shock. Thank you Patient Safety Learning Hub for listening to an all-too common story.