I wanted to share my HSG experience here in hopes it might help others that are furiously googling what is/isn’t normal like I did after getting mine. This will be a long post, so bear with me. TL;DR at the end.

I had my HSG around noon on 12/23. The test itself was probably the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. My doctor prescribed me oxycodone to take about an hour prior to the procedure, which I did. Unfortunately, they were about 2 hours late to start my test. So I think most of it had worn off by the time they actually started it.

When they inserted the balloon it was definitely uncomfortable, but manageable pain-wise. Like bad period cramps. When they injected the dye, it went from about a 4 to a 10. Like period cramps but much sharper I guess? Luckily the worst part only lasted about 10-20 seconds. They told me my tubes were completely open, which was obviously great news.

Afterwards I went to the bathroom to clean up and I almost passed out from the lingering pain. I had to lay on the floor of the bathroom for several minutes to keep from passing out. Luckily my husband drove me to the appointment because I don’t think I could’ve driven myself home. I took the additional pain meds my doctor prescribed (basically extra-strength tylenol) when I got home and was feeling much better within a few hours.

The day of and the day after I had very minimal bleeding. Like spotting type bleeding, brown/light pink in color. Nothing a panty liner couldn’t contain. However, on 12/25 the bleeding got heavier. This was more like full period blood, bright red with very small clots. I was freaking out, googling if this was normal. I couldn’t call my doctor because it was Christmas Day. I could still contain it with a pantyliner, but I probably had to change it 4-5 times that day. Eventually it mostly stopped making it to the liner, but was still bright red when I wiped. I never at any point felt sick or feverish or anything like that. So I decided I would give it one more day and if it didn’t subside I would call my doctor.

Thankfully the next day, 12/26, it was clearly lightening up. Throughout the day on 12/26, the bleeding went back to spotting type blood, brown/light pink. And by 12/27 it completely stopped. Throughout this time, I was still cramping some, but it wasn’t bad cramping. It was very dull period-like cramps, but almost felt like someone was scraping my uterus with a fingernail (gross I know, but that’s the best way I can describe it). Pain was probably a 2/10.

So all this to say, I ended up being fine despite having bright red bleeding a couple of days after my HSG. Everything I read said that as long as you do not feel sick and you are not soaking through a full pad within a couple of hours, it should be ok. And that ended up being true for me.

Obviously this is not medical advice, and if you are worried you should absolutely call your doctor. But hopefully this can provide some reassurance to anyone that might be in a similar situation as I was.

Wishing everyone the best of luck on their TTC journey!

TL;DR Got my HSG 12/23, had light spotting (brown/light pink) 12/23 and 12/24. Then had full period bleeding (bright red with small clots) on 12/25. Panty liners could contain it though. Bleeding slowed back to spotting 12/26 and stopped completely by 12/27. I never felt sick/feverish, just had 2/10 cramping pain.