A medical procedure which your sharp eyes will notice has two parts: the dilation and the curettage. It involves dilating the cervix - an extremely painful procedure, I can tell you from experience - followed by scraping the uterine walls with a curette, a spoon-shaped instrument with a sharp edge - an uncomfortable, but not so painful, activity. It should be done under a local anaesthetic, but isn't always, as I can attest.
Why would women have such a nasty thing done to us, you wonder? There are several reasons. Perhaps to remove abnormal or malignant cells, if we have uterine or cervical cancer, or the less invasive cysts or polyps. Perhaps to remove unwanted cells, as in an abortion, or if some placenta remains in the uterus after giving birth. It is sometimes performed to stop prolonged or heavy menstrual bleeding. And I can't help but think that in some cases it's just because our sadistic doctors want to do "tests" of some sort, and need "samples" from our uteruses which they could really do without.
This awful procedure is also known as D&C or dilatation and curettage.