I got mine done three years back at 36 (I've had gastric issues, and my mom has colorectal cancer) - didn't use sedatives or anesthesia. Pain tolerance is relative, so my own experience wouldn't carry over.
I can understand if some people want sedatives, but anesthesia is pretty high risk like you were saying.
So much "high risk" in this thread, yet its used all over the place in United States and not a single shred of evidence to be found anywhere here...
I did some googling; here's some studies on death rate due to anasthesia: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3147285/ ; the latter does highlight that the incident rate has dropped a lot since the 1940's. Another one on "anesthetic awareness", or waking up during the procedure / recalling things without being able to respond, which happens 1-2 times out of 1000: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2900098
"Not a single shred of evidence to be found" -> "I didn't actually look but like telling people they're wrong lol"
Its not my responsibility to look for evidence if you're making the claim.
If you want to come into a thread telling people that are already apprehensive about a procedure "please don't do X its dangerous!" when an _actual_ first google will give you a Mayo Clinic saying its perfectly fine, then you need to provide some fucking evidence.
Your evidence is unconvincing, but good job being condescending.
Once every few years they find a suspicious polyp and snip it of / cauterize the wound, all with just local numbing. Still nothing worse than stubbing a toe, and certainly not worth the risk of using sedatives.