The opinions and thoughts of women who underwent hysterosalpingography for the first time: Letter to the editor

Abstract

To the Editor;We read the article "The effect of a preproceduralinformative video on anxiety levels in patients undergoinghysterosalpingography: A prospective case-control study"by Erkılınç et al. (1) with great interest, which mentionedthe effect of a preprocedural informative video on anxietylevels in patients undergoing hysterosalpingography (HSG).They found the Beck Anxiety scores to be significantly lowerin the study group compared with the control group. In theliterature, there are many intervention studies for pain andanxiety during HSG procedures (2). However, in order todetermine the effectiveness of interventions, we believe thatthe determination of the experiences, opinions, and thoughtsof women and information on the procedure before HSG isimportant (3).As for our experience, we designed a qualitative study todetermine the thoughts and experiences of women towardsHSG. This was conducted on 20 women who presented forthe first time to have an HSG procedure in Gülhane Trainingand Research Hospital. Individual interviews were conductedbefore and after the procedure for each participant.We used a questionnaire of 14 questions including thesociodemographic and obstetric data of the women. Also,“before and after the procedure” questions were asked todetermine the thoughts of the women towards HSG and theiranswers were recorded using a voice recorder. Before theoperation, their sources of information and current feelingswere questioned through face-to-face interviews. After theHSG, the interview was recorded again, asking how the overallexperience was, and how they would share their experienceswith other women, as well as their recommendations to them.The main answers and concerns of women were concentrated around why HSG was done, the pain associated with theprocedure, and anxiety caused by the unknown procedure.After the interviews, we concluded that the knowledge ofwomen was not sufficient on HSG and that they needed to beinformed. Women reported that they had gained informationabout HSG mostly from the internet and from women whohad undergone the procedure previously. We determined thatthe information acquired by women with their own effortsincreased their anxiety toward the process. Therefore, it isimportant to ensure accurate and reliable information providedby health professionals to women who are going to undergoHSG. By doing so, it would be possible to prevent the prejudices,anxiety, and false perceptions/information of women regardingHSG. Therefore, we appreciate the work of Erkılınç et al. (1)because it will have a real positive effect on patients.