Operative Hysteroscopy

The ultimate way to know what is going on in the uterine cavity is to look inside and see. Hysteroscopy was designed for just that reason.

Before the advent of ultrasound and office endometrial sampling, virtually every woman underwent dilatation and curettage for treatment of abnormal bleeding. Up until the 1980s, a D&C was done as an inpatient procedure using general anesthesia and was intended to be treatment more than a method of diagnosis. Even at that time there was an awareness that a D&C, while able to sample representative tissue, often missed things, including fibroids and polyps. It was the invention of fiber-optic technology that permitted visualization of the uterine cavity with a hysteroscope that enabled evaluation of the entire uterine cavity.

Operative hysteroscopy, in which instruments are passed through the hysteroscope, is most commonly used for removal of fibroids and polyps.

We perform this procedure either in our office surgical suite, 900 North Michigan outpatient surgical center, or Prentice Women’s Hospital.

Situations in which D&C/Hysteroscopy would be appropriate include the following:

• Known or suspected uterine polyp
• Hysteroscopic removal of fibroids (hysteroscopic myomectomy)  
• In conjunction with endometrial ablation
• Removal of intrauterine adhesions
• Biopsy of a mass in the uterine cavity