{"id":180,"date":"2026-02-12T11:06:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/?p=180"},"modified":"2026-02-13T08:21:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:21:52","slug":"reflections-on-the-ages-hologic-hysteroscopic-travelling-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/reflections-on-the-ages-hologic-hysteroscopic-travelling-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the AGES \/ Hologic Hysteroscopic Travelling Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tReflections on the AGES \/ Hologic Hysteroscopic Travelling Fellowship\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t

Dr Alison Bryant-Smith in conversation with Dr Lauren Hicks<\/h3>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

Q: Lauren, you were awarded the AGES \/ Hologic Hysteroscopic Travelling Fellowship in 2024. Can you tell us where you travelled, and what you had hoped to gain from the experience?<\/h3>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

Thank you – it was a real privilege. I travelled to the UK in October 2024, and visited several NHS hospitals with well-established, high-volume outpatient hysteroscopy services. I had two main aims: firstly, to observe how these units are structured and run, with a view to improving efficiency and access in my own unit at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. Secondly, I wanted to assess the feasibility and patient acceptability of performing NovaSure endometrial ablation under local anaesthetic, which is common practice in the UK but not widely performed this way in Australia.<\/p>\n\t\t\t

Q: What stood out to you most about outpatient hysteroscopy practice in the UK compared with Australia?<\/h3>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

The most striking difference was how ‘normalised’ outpatient hysteroscopy is. In the UK, it is very much the default approach rather than an alternative to hysteroscopy under general anaesthetic. There were no rigid exclusion criteria based on age or BMI, largely because national benchmarks actively encourage outpatient procedures. In many units, general anaesthetic is reserved only for women who decline or cannot tolerate an awake procedure. The ‘one-stop’ clinics were particularly impressive: women could have a consultation, ultrasound, hysteroscopy and treatment all in a single visit. This is something that my team at RWH are hoping to emulate eventually!<\/p>\n\t\t\t

Q: There has been considerable discussion internationally about patient experience and pain during outpatient hysteroscopy. How did UK units address this?<\/h3>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

This was an important aspect of my visit. The UK has seen strong advocacy around painful hysteroscopy, which has led to updated guidelines emphasising patient education, counselling and informed choice around anaesthetic options. I saw excellent examples of this in practice, including work at the Royal London Hospital developing consumer-informed audiovisual patient information resources. Importantly, this approach recognises that while most women tolerate outpatient hysteroscopy well, individual experiences vary and patient autonomy is central.<\/p>\n\t\t\t

Q: You visited several high-volume units. What factors contributed to their efficiency and patient flow?<\/h3>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

Across the four trusts I visited, clinics were running between 7 and 15 half-day sessions per week, performing six to eight procedures per session. While room setups and equipment differed, the consistent factor was experienced and dedicated nursing and support staff. Combined with proficient clinicians, this allowed procedures to be performed efficiently. Shorter operative times seemed to translate into better patient experiences, which is particularly important given the intimate and potentially uncomfortable nature of hysteroscopy.<\/p>\n\t\t\t

Q: You also observed NovaSure ablation under local anaesthetic. What were your impressions?<\/h3>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

I approached this with some apprehension, having previously seen significant post-operative discomfort following ablation under general anaesthetic. However, I was genuinely surprised by how well tolerated the procedure was when performed with a high-dose cervical block, and in some cases an additional fundal block. NovaSure itself is very quick (under two minutes), and the women I observed recovered rapidly, and were able to continue with their day. Based on this experience, I would feel comfortable offering this option to carefully selected, motivated patients wishing to avoid a general anaesthetic.<\/p>\n\t\t\t

Q: How do you see this fellowship influencing your practice going forward?<\/h3>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

The fellowship has been incredibly motivating. It has reinforced for me the importance of outpatient hysteroscopy as a core gynaecological service and highlighted practical ways we can continue to improve access, efficiency and patient experience. I’m very grateful to AGES and Hologic for their support, and to the UK clinicians who so generously shared their time and expertise.<\/p>\n\t\t\t

Author \/ Interviewee<\/h3>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
\nDr Alison Bryant-Smith
MBBS\/BA, MPH, MSurgEd, MRCOG, FRANZCOG
Royal Women’s Hospital (Melbourne), and Northern Health (Melbourne)\n\t\t\t\t
\nDr Lauren Hicks
\nMBBS(HONS), BMedSci, MRMed, FRANZCOG
\nRoyal Women’s Hospital (Melbourne), and The Mercy Hospital for Women (Melbourne)\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lessons from the UK: Dr Lauren Hicks on outpatient hysteroscopy and awake ablation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/february-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}