Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone comes across it in the future with similar questions to the ones I had. 

I had the endometrial biopsy today. I took paracetamol and ibuprofen an hour beforehand (no way of knowing how much they helped but they couldn't hurt!).

TLDR: it was unpleasant and very uncomfortable at times, but not horrifically painful like I was imagining. 

She couldn't find my cervix at first, so she had to use a larger speculum than I'm used to and spent ages poking about which was uncomfortable. 

Whatever she did to 'open' my cervix was uncomfortable. I can't remember the exact nature of the pain now (my brain is apparently good at protecting me ) but I had to breathe through it and it brought me to tears. That lasted probably 30-60 seconds. 

The actual biopsy wasn't as bad. It felt like what it was: someone poking about inside me with a stick. Crampy, unpleasant, poky.

She did that 2 or 3 times (again probably 30-60 seconds at a time) but couldn't get what she needed to do she had to open my cervix up further. It wasn't as painful as the initial opening but was still very uncomfortable. 

One more biopsy (again, the poky, pointy, crampy feeling) and it was over. My husband's hand was flattened by my squeezing  bless him.

Afterwards I felt a bit shaky, but not the 'shock' symptoms others described (flushed, faint, nauseous etc). Lots of  cramps which isn't nice but nothing worse than a normal period. A small amount of bleeding. Rather stupidly, this didn't occur to me so I didn't take anything with me but they had sanitary towels there ready for me bless them.

She said I had a particularly difficult cervix (she could get in but struggled to get past the 'valve' at the top of it, into my uterus), so my experience likely lasted a fair bit longer than is typical.

She said afterwards that she wasn't confident at all that she'd got enough, so I'm booked in for a hysteroscopy in 4-6w which she'll cancel if they did end up getting enough today. Though she showed me the jar afterwards and there was only the tiniest bit in there so I'm 99% sure I'm going back.

Thanks again for the replies, it genuinely did help put my mind at ease.

Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone comes across it in the future with similar questions to the ones I had. 

I had the endometrial biopsy today. I took paracetamol and ibuprofen an hour beforehand (no way of knowing how much they helped but they couldn't hurt!).

TLDR: it was unpleasant and very uncomfortable at times, but not horrifically painful like I was imagining. 

She couldn't find my cervix at first, so she had to use a larger speculum than I'm used to and spent ages poking about which was uncomfortable. 

Whatever she did to 'open' my cervix was uncomfortable. I can't remember the exact nature of the pain now (my brain is apparently good at protecting me ) but I had to breathe through it and it brought me to tears. That lasted probably 30-60 seconds. 

The actual biopsy wasn't as bad. It felt like what it was: someone poking about inside me with a stick. Crampy, unpleasant, poky.

She did that 2 or 3 times (again probably 30-60 seconds at a time) but couldn't get what she needed to do she had to open my cervix up further. It wasn't as painful as the initial opening but was still very uncomfortable. 

One more biopsy (again, the poky, pointy, crampy feeling) and it was over. My husband's hand was flattened by my squeezing  bless him.

Afterwards I felt a bit shaky, but not the 'shock' symptoms others described (flushed, faint, nauseous etc). Lots of  cramps which isn't nice but nothing worse than a normal period. A small amount of bleeding. Rather stupidly, this didn't occur to me so I didn't take anything with me but they had sanitary towels there ready for me bless them.

She said I had a particularly difficult cervix (she could get in but struggled to get past the 'valve' at the top of it, into my uterus), so my experience likely lasted a fair bit longer than is typical.

She said afterwards that she wasn't confident at all that she'd got enough, so I'm booked in for a hysteroscopy in 4-6w which she'll cancel if they did end up getting enough today. Though she showed me the jar afterwards and there was only the tiniest bit in there so I'm 99% sure I'm going back.

Thanks again for the replies, it genuinely did help put my mind at ease.