To: Bernard Gloster CEO of HSE
Mandate Anaesthesia for Gynaecology procedures
ALWAYS give Anaesthesia for cervical biopsies, IUD insertions, colposcopy, endometrial biopsies and other gynaecological procedures.
Anaesthesia must be given just like in every other biopsy or genital service, Not paracetamol “offered” at the doctors discretion but anaesthesia mandated as part of the service, and women MUST know this can cause severe pain and wounding for days!
These are highly invasive procedures of tearing tissue, causing internal wounding and terrible pain and vagovagal response, needing to heal — all akin to surgery, anaesthesia must be provided!!
Anaesthesia must be given just like in every other biopsy or genital service, Not paracetamol “offered” at the doctors discretion but anaesthesia mandated as part of the service, and women MUST know this can cause severe pain and wounding for days!
These are highly invasive procedures of tearing tissue, causing internal wounding and terrible pain and vagovagal response, needing to heal — all akin to surgery, anaesthesia must be provided!!
Why is this important?
Right now, across Ireland, women are having instruments pushed through their cervix, tissue ripped from their uterus, and samples cut from internal organs - while fully conscious and in agony. They bleed for days afterward. They vomit from pain. They pass out. They leave traumatised.
And they were offered paracetamol. Or nothing at all!!
This is barbaric!
We don’t do dental fillings without numbing. We don’t remove moles without local anaesthetic. We definitely don’t ask men to endure vasectomies while gritting their teeth. But somehow, when the procedure involves a uterus, pain relief becomes optional.
Medical science was wrong when it operated on babies without anaesthesia - we tortured infants for decades because doctors “didn’t think they felt pain.” We were wrong when we dismissed women’s heart attacks as anxiety. We were wrong about endometriosis, about fibromyalgia, about countless conditions where we told patients their pain wasn’t real.
We are wrong about this too. And patients are suffering because of it.
These tissues have nerves. If sex can hurt, biopsies hurt more. If periods cause cramping, imagine instruments dilating your cervix and scraping your uterine lining. If Childbirth causes pain, imagine forcing labour in cervical dilations then tearing a piece of that tissue out!
If it bleeds for days, it was violent enough to require anaesthesia.
There is NO medical reason to withhold pain relief. Local anaesthetic doesn’t compromise samples. Sedation doesn’t affect outcomes. The only barrier is a medical system that doesn’t believe women’s pain matters.
This ends now.
Sign this petition to demand the HSE mandate anaesthesia for gynaecological procedures. Demand honest informed consent. Demand that Irish patients receive the same dignity as patients in every other medical specialty.
Please sign this, because Every signature says: we will not be tortured for healthcare anymore.