Posts Tagged ‘ best treatment for fibroids ’

best treatment for fibroids

What is the Best Treatment for Fibroids?

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best treatment for fibroids

The best treatment for fibroids depends entirely on you. Your fibroid symptoms, you’re age, if you’re far away or close to menopause. Whether you want children. How much time you can spare for recovery. Many factors go into choosing the best treatment for fibroids.

Do Nothing

If you have fibroids that aren’t causing symptoms, your doctor may recommend a ‘wait and see’ approach. Just be sure you undergo regular exams and imaging studies. Fibroids can grow quickly and cause significant health issues. They might seem dormant, but do not ignore them.

Hold out for Menopause

If you’re older and your symptoms aren’t terrible, you might consider toughing it out. Decreasing estrogen levels are associated with a decrease in fibroid activity. But be aware that the time before menopause (peri-menopause) can mean wildly swinging hormone levels. The same estrogen highs and lows that contribute to hot flashes and night sweats also contribute to fibroid development, so symptoms could get worse before they get better. If you take estrogen replacement, (bioidentical or otherwise), to minimize menopause discomfort, expect an increase in fibroid growth. If you are overweight, fibroid-related problems could continue long after your periods stop. Fat cells produce an estrogen-like substance that encourages fibroids.

Medical Therapy

Fibroid issues like excessive bleeding or pelvic pain may be temporarily eased by medications to regulate your menstrual cycle. Medical therapy won’t eliminate the problem, but by lowering estrogen levels (fibroids thrive when estrogen elevates), they can soften the symptoms. There are many types of medical therapy, but all involve taking artificial hormones. How you feel about that, and any of the potential side effects, may or may not make this line of treatment appropriate.

Hysterectomy

Hysterectomy is a commonly recommended option for women with symptomatic fibroids. Surgical removal of the uterus ends all problems with uterine fibroids. Obviously, this treatment isn’t optimal if you want children. Or would prefer to keep your uterus right where it is. A hysterectomy is major surgery. Even when done laparoscopically, (through the vagina with a small incision, rather than a larger abdominal incision), recovery time is lengthy. And often painful.

Surgical Intervention

Surgeries to remove fibroids from the uterus either by cutting, scraping or ablation (heating tissue to a temperature that kills it) is helpful for younger fibroid patients. Especially those who intend to become pregnant. These surgeries tend to be multiple. Additionally, it can be easy to miss smaller fibroids or fibroids deeper in the uterine wall. They will keep growing. Surgical removal as a fibroid treatment or an assist in fibroid-related fertility issues is usually a short-term solution. When fibroids return, so does the need for more surgery.

Fibroid Embolization

Fibroid embolization is a non-surgical procedure that selectively blocks blood vessels. Originally used to stop excessive bleeding during uterine surgery or during birth, embolization proved an excellent approach to fibroid treatment. Without a blood supply, fibroids shrink and fibroid-related symptoms end. Uterine health and function aren’t impaired by invasive tissue removal. Recovery is short, and you experience no surgical discomfort. Embolization is a medically recognized and approved treatment for fibroids. (Your doctor, however, may not know about it.)

What is the best treatment for fibroids? Discuss all the options with your physician. Then consider asking the following questions:

  • Will this approach give me permanent relief?
  • How does it affect my ability to have children?
  • How long will I be away from work, family, normal activities?
  • What are the side effects?
  • Am I likely to have to repeat this type of treatment?

 Here at the Fibroid Treatment Collective, we offer free consultations in-office or over the phone. Feel free to contact us for more information. To learn more about fibroids, visit our homepage. 

 

 

 

Sources

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/no-best-treatment-for-common-uterine-fibroids-201504237918
http://obgyn.ucla.edu/medical-therapy

Is Embolization Right for You?

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There are many treatment options to consider...

Uterine fibroids most commonly affect women 40 to 50 years old. These benign tumors grow within the muscular wall of the uterus, and depending on size, have the ability to disrupt the abdominal space with their dense, fibrous tissue. Fibroids may cause a change in menstrual bleeding, pelvic pressure or pain, constant urination, and a variety of other symptoms. Rest assured, there is a fibroid treatment for everyone.

Symptomatic fibroid patients are often told they need surgery. An enormous amount of hysterectomies (surgical removal of the uterus) and myomectomies (surgical removal of fibroid and uterine tissue) are performed every year to address symptoms of pain, bleeding, abdominal distention and fibroid-related infertility. But are these surgeries really the best approach?

Fibroid Surgery vs. Non-surgical Uterine Fibroid Embolization

As medicine advances, many traditional surgeries are being replaced by gentler, less invasive techniques. Uterine Fibroid Embolization is an example of a highly successful and surgery-free fibroid treatment. More and more women are choosing to avoid the pain, risk and recovery time of fibroid surgery by opting for an approach that’s low- trauma to the body, has a very brief recovery time and protects fertility in women of child bearing age.

The right fibroid treatment choice is something only you and your doctor can decide. But understanding surgical versus non-surgical options definitely helps shape an informed decision.

How Fibroid Embolization Treats Fibroids

This is a minimally invasive procedure. No tissue or organs are surgically removed. Instead, embolization works by injecting tiny particles into the blood vessels that nourish each fibroid. Blocking blood supply starves fibroids of oxygen and nutrients. They dwindle and shrink. The fibroid growth cycle is reversed, permanently. Fibroid symptoms are reversed, permanently.

The embolization procedure requires no removal of uterine tissue. It is performed under local, rather than general anesthesia. Most patients return home and resume normal activity in a matter of days.

How Surgery Treats Fibroids

Hysterectomy is one of the most common surgeries prescribed for fibroid issues. Without a uterus, there can be no uterine fibroids. But this form of treatment can have negative psychological and physical effects. And removing the uterus presents a variety of risks including blood clots, infections and permanent damage to the body. Hysterectomy surgery also involves an extended hospital stay, long recovery and the end of any future fertility. Many women, even if they aren’t planning on having children, prefer to keep the uterus they were born with.

Myomectomy is the excision of fibroids by scalpel or electrical current. It is often recommended for fibroid patients who wish to preserve the uterus and any potential fertility. Important considerations with this surgery are the chance of fibroid regrowth (about 50% of all myomectomy patients will have fibroids return within 1 year), uterine scarring, and a long recovery period. (While less than the 2 month recovery expected with hysterectomy, myomectomy still averages 5 weeks of recuperation.

Which Way to Go? Surgery or Embolization?

Both are medically proven approaches. Both offer symptom relief.

For patients comfortable with major surgery and removal of the uterus, hysterectomy may well be the right option. For those who desire immediate removal of fibroids, aware that uterine scarring and fibroid regrowth may occur, myomectomy may be suitable. But for women who feel a minimally invasive treatment is better suited to their bodies, lifestyles and fertility expectations, fibroid embolization offers symptom relief without the discomfort, risk and recovery time of fibroid surgery.

To learn more about non-surgical uterine fibroid embolization and its benefits, visit fibroids.com Or speak directly with The Fibroid Treatment Collective, medical pioneers of this non-surgical, minimally invasive approach. 888-296-9442. The consultation costs nothing. The information could change everything.

Am I a candidate for non-surgical treatment?

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