A gastroscopy is a test that lets your doctor look down your throat and into your foodpipe and stomach.

The doctor uses a long bendy tube with a built-in camera and light on the end to do this.

Your digestive system consists of the foodpipe, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and rectum.

When you eat, the food passes down your foodpipe to your stomach, where is turned into a sloppy liquid. From there, it passes into your small intestine and then your large intestine, where all the water and goodness in the food is absorbed.

When it’s passed through your large intestine, it travels to your rectum and then to outside when you have a poo.

You might need a gastroscopy if you’re having stomach problems or you aren’t absorbing enough goodness from your food.

What happens?

It’s really important that your stomach is empty so the doctor can see every bit of it clearly. This means you have to stop eating and drinking about four hours before the test. The nurse will also put a cannula (a thin, plastic tube) into a vein so that the doctor can give you medicine easily during the test. Your nurse will put some numbing cream on your arm so you won’t feel the cannula inserted.

About two hours before the test, you will have some medicine that will make you really sleepy – you’ll either drink this or it might be injected into the cannula. Just before the test starts, the doctor will give you some more medicine – into the cannula, this time – to make you even sleepier.

You’ll have some throat spray as well, so it won’t hurt when the doctor puts the tube down the back of your throat.

Your mum or dad can stay with you during the test and will go with you back to the ward when the test is finished.

You’ll probably feel really sleepy after the test, so you’ll have to stay on the ward for a few hours until you wake up properly and have a drink and something to eat. If you’re not sick and you’ve had a wee, you’ll be able to go home.

You’ll probably still feel a bit sleepy when you get home but this will go away once you’ve had a long sleep.

Where can I get more information?

If you want to know more about gastroscopies or your digestive system in general, you can ask your doctor or nurse.

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