Transvag ultrasound possible with vestibulitis?

[greenwood112]

I have just arrived home from a doctors appointment and he has scheduled me for a transvaginal ultrasound on the 27th of the month.  I have vulvar vestibulitis, which is a neuropathic pain condition that causes the vestibular glands to be extremely painful and sometimes swollen.  Because of this, I have always had major pain on insertion of anything into my vagina.  About 6 months ago I started topical gabapentin and have been able to successfully have my first pap (at 32 years old!).  It was a little painful but bearable. I can wear tampons without any pain right now.

My question is, what is this ultrasound like?  How large is the instrument that they use and do they have to move it around a lot to get a clear picture?  Is it at all painful to the average woman?  How does it compare to a pap and pelvic exam in terms of pain/discomfort?

Thanks for any help and sorry for the amount of detail.

Greenwood.

[MarieMichele]

It sounds optimistic.  I am glad they kept it to the one type of ultrasound for you.  It's true..having a full bladder may be the worst part of having this done.  They let you empty your bladder for the other type, but you were spared that part.  Hopefully this does mean they saw enough on the one test to not need the other.  Hopefully it's all good.  What we see on the screen ourselves is pretty meaningless without training (even the tech can get it wrong), so no use in trying to guess.  They probably sent it to a radiologist to read it who will then send a report back to the doctor.

[greenwood112]

Just an update.  I had my ultrasound was yesterday and it turns out they just did the transabdominal rather than the transvaginal even though I didn't mention the vestibulitis.  While I was in the waiting room I heard the sonographer scoff about a transvaginal to the secretary who replied "I just write what I see".  I was actually quite relieved for two reasons.  The first is that I was nervous about pain, of course, and the second is that I figure that if there was anything suspicious in the abdominal, they would have progressed to a transvaginal to get a better look I think.  Am I right?  At the end I asked her if my ovaries were visible (since the ultrasound was also for bladder and kidney's) and she said yes.  I caught a glimpse of the computer screen at one point and didn't see anything black apart from my very full bladder, although I honestly don't know where my ovaries would have been in the shot.  Anyway, so far so good, I think.  My lower abdomin felt quite achy last night afterward which I'm assuming is from stretching my bladder for so long.  I have the most sensitive bladder imaginable and it didn't like that process too much!  Now I have to wait for my doctor to get back from holidays in a few weeks to learn the results but I don't think I have anything to fear.

[greenwood112]

Thanks so much.  I took your advice and google imaged it and it looks do-able.  I'm sure I'll survive it:)

[MarieMichele]

It's not much worse than a pelvic exam for a pap smear.  It's an imaging device at the end of a probe and it will be covered with a condom. Perhaps the width of a super absorbent tampon, slightly wider at the headpiece?  

We can't include links to other sites, but if you go to Google Images and search for "transvaginal ultrasound probe" you will see pictures of what they look like.

They will use the usual lubricants they use for pelvic exams. Just ask them to go SLOW, remind them of your condition, and you should be OK.  They may move it around a bit, yes, but that will be near the upper end near the cervix.  Once the insertion is done CAREFULLY the rest is much easier.  Pap smears, in my opinion, hurt more because of the scraping they do to get cells for testing.