What is a "hysterosalpingogram" or "HSG"?

What is a "hysterosalpingogram" or "HSG"?

Richard Paulson (Chief, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, USC) gives expert video advice on: How will my doctor test for female infertility?; How will my doctor test for male infertility? and more...

The word hysterosalpingogram is Greek and it means uterus - hystero, salpingo - fallopian tube, gram - picture. So it's a picture of the uterus and the fallopian tubes. And the way that it's done is that dye is injected through the cervix into the lower part of the uterus and then the dye is watched to flow into the uterus and out of the fallopian tubes. And it turns out that the dye that is used is taken up by x-rays and so you do an x-ray of the lower part of the abdomen. Some women worry that the x-rays will damage their ovaries but it's a very low dose and it's not a problem. And since hysterosalpingogram is such a mouthful we all just abbreviate it HSG, which is a lot easier to say and a lot easier to write.