What Are Fibroids?

Fibroids are benign tumors of the uterus. One estimate says that about 30 percent of all women over the age of 30 develop them at some point in their life. Fibroids can cause a lot of problems: pain, bleeding, urinary tract problems — and they’re very uncomfortable.

How to Treat Fibroids

There are two choices for treatment. One is surgery to remove the fibroids or the entire uterus. The second option is the type of treatment that was involved in the new research study — embolization, or bead treatment. With this treatment, little beads are injected into the arteries that supply blood to the uterus, which cause the fibroids to shrink or die.

The study suggests that both treatments can work, but the bead procedure is much more tolerable, and the women who undergo it spend less time in the hospital.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=2822210

Pedunculated fibroids are non-cancerous uterine growths attached to the uterine wall by a peduncle, a stalk-like growth. Those that grow inside the uterus are known as pedunculated submucosal fibroids, and those that develop outside the uterus are known as subserous pedunculated fibroids.

Pedunculated fibroids can be painful, particularly if the peduncle becomes twisted. The risk of the peduncle twisting increases as the fibroid grows larger.

Other painful symptoms that are often associated with these fibroids are uterine cramps, as well as pressure on the uterus along with other organs.

This sub-mucosal fibroid even causes irregular bleeding during menstrual such as light spotting or regular bleeding all the time. Women with constant bleeding may undergo heavy bleeding during the menstrual cycle.

When a peduncle is determined to be 2cm or more in width, a process called Uterine Artery Embolization is indicated. This procedure blocks the blood supply to the growths so that they begin to deteriorate and eventually die. This procedure has been found to be more successful with subserousal fibroids than with any other kind of fibroid.

Doctors at the Bretonneau Hospital in France have found that up to 10% of patients who undergo Uterine Artery Embolization for pedunculated fibroids encounter regrowth of their fibroids after 2 years. For this reason, they recommend that the procedure be repeated after 2 years.

Another procedure often used to treat pedunculated fibroids is a myomectomy. In this procedure, the surgeon removes the fibroid and repairs the uterus. Myomectomy is not always 100% successful. In one case reported by the University of South Dakota, an unsuccessful myomectomy was performed, leading to an emergency hysterectomy for the patient.

Because the success rate for myomectomies is not 100%, women are usually asked to sign a waiver that specifies a hysterectomy if the surgery is not successful. Some women have gone in for one procedure and awakened after having two.

Thousand Oaks Acorn

Many common health conditions, including chronic pelvic pain and uterine fibroids, can often be treated without surgery.  Interventional radiologists can perform many of these minimally invasive procedures using new technologies that minimize risk, recovery time and pain.

Read more of the article

By Linda Villarosa

The story is too common: a woman goes to her doctor to treat her heavy menstrual bleeding. She is told she has fibroids, but is reassured it is normal. Six months later, her fibroids have grown and she is told she needs a hysterectomy. At the age of 32, she still wants to be able to have children. Fibroids are common in women in their 30s and 40s, and as more women are waiting to have children, they find out they have fibroids, which can complicate pregnancy. In the past, there were few alternative to hysterectomy. Health experts are pushing to alter the options for treatment of fibroids as the demographic of women learning they have fibroids changes. Treatment for fibroids is important to fertility, longevity and health for women, and can’t be ignored.

Link to Article in NY Times