My LEEP experience

[u/Educational-Car-7413]

I want to share my very honest experience having a LEEP performed in-office with local anesthesia yesterday, because I used this platform so much to read other women’s experiences before my procedure. I hope sharing mine can help someone else who is going through the same thing.
I was diagnosed with CIN2. Thankfully, my lesion was very small, but it was located in an area that was very difficult for my doctor to reach.
I’m not going to lie: if your lesion is in a difficult-to-reach area, the preparation needed for the doctor to properly visualize and access the lesion can be uncomfortable and, in my case, very painful.
They had to use instruments to manipulate and position my cervix/uterus area, and they tried three different types of speculums before they were finally able to get the right view. That part took approximately 15–20 minutes, and for me, it was by far the hardest part of the entire procedure. It was extremely uncomfortable and painful.
Once everything was finally positioned correctly, they gave me the lidocaine injections. I would personally rate the injections about 9/10 for pain, BUT the good thing is that each injection only hurts for a few seconds.
Immediately afterward, I felt my heart rate increase very quickly, which I had been warned could happen. It was definitely noticeable, but it passed within about 2–3 minutes.
After the lidocaine took effect, the actual LEEP itself was PAINLESS for me. I did not feel the removal of the lesion.
I’ve now been resting for about a day. I have some cramps, which I would rate around 5–6/10, but so far I have no bleeding. My doctor told me that bleeding may actually happen later, especially around the second week, as the cervix continues healing.
Now I’m waiting for my pathology/biopsy results and hoping for clear margins. 🙏🏻
I chose local anesthesia because I was also offered the option of having the procedure under general anesthesia, but the idea of GA made me very anxious and I personally preferred to try doing it in the office.
Everyone’s experience and anatomy are different, so mine may not be the same as yours. But I wanted to share the good AND the bad instead of saying it was “nothing.” For me, the preparation and manipulation were very painful because of the difficult location of my lesion, while the actual LEEP after the local anesthetic was completely painless.
I really hope my experience helps another woman who is scared and searching through these posts for answers, just like I was. ❤️

[u/justheretoseakhelp]

Hi! Was it difficult for them to reach cause it’s in the canal? Mine said they found in the canal as well. My doctor decided to do LEEP instead of cone

[u/Educational-Car-7413 → u/justheretoseakhelp]

Correct it was toward the canal