Videos

Join our free women's health community, and meet others who get it.

What Is a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG)? with Dr. Katherine L. Palmerola of IVFMD

Hi, my name is Dr. Katherine Pongrolet and I am 1 of the fertility specialists at IGFMD in Miami, which is part of the PreVu network. If you're new to fertility treatments, you may be overwhelmed by the number of abbreviations and different procedures we have during your testing and treatments. So I wanted to explain some of the most common procedures that you may face during your evaluation. Starting with Hysterosalpingogram, this also goes by the abbreviation HSG.

The Hysterosalpingogram is a test to look at the fallopian tubes primarily. You get a sense of the uterus, but it's not a perfect test for uterus, it's mostly evaluating the fallopian tubes. This is done by inserting a small amount of dye into the uterus, which then flows into the floppian tubes. While we're inserting that wood into the uterus and floppian tubes, we're taking x-ray images, which allow us to see the shapes of the floppian tubes. It's a very quick test, typically a few minutes ideally.

There can be some mild cramping during that procedure, which can be minimized by Motrin or ibuprofen, and we get our results immediately. So the pictures tell us the shape of the floating tubes and whether they're open, is there any scarring or blockages, and it gives us a rough sense of the uterus, but it's not meant for an evaluation of the uterus.