And if general anesthesia is not your friend,
you might look into some of the alternatives that don't
require it. I haven't looked into it in ages, but aren't
some of the new procedures able to be done under a local?

As I understand it, in theory anything below a certain level can be done
with regional (spinal or epidural) anesthesia. I think one the things
working against it happening much is that you actually need more time in
recovery, or at least in the hospital than for a general, day surgery
centers get you out of the door in a couple of hours from a general, but
a spinal or epidural doesn't reliably wear of so fast, anything but
first thing in the morning and it could well turn into an overnight
stay. I've stumbled across the occasional article about some surgeon
raving about regional anesthesia and it offering benefits that balance
the disadvantages of the delay in early recovery, the only one I
remember coming across recently was actually upper limb, so different
type of regional.

However what is done routinely can be a whole different ball game to
what is possible and what you might talk the doctor into and the kind of
situations where it might be a very good plan aren't desparately
uncommon, though I suppose it could mean a location change from an
outpatient centre to a hospital (though I've been offered it at an
outpatient surgery centre). My guess is that the doctor might have other
suggestions though.

Kat, I think I missed replying to this bit in the other thread, but I
know in the UK that you wouldn't have to fill a prescription for a IUD
or implant, it was something they had at the location it was done at,
could be completely different in Canada, obviously.

Cheers
Anne