Seeking Some Advice on Uterine Fibroids

I had uterine fibroids and it was causing excessive bleeding so I had them removed before TTC. It was no big deal having them removed and I had no problem getting pregnant afterward.

Hi E......there are soooo many different stories about fibroids....when i was 9 weeks pregnant i had horrible abdoninal pain & had to go the the ER.....they found 5 small fibroids...they monitored me throughout my pregnancy to make sure baby was ok....thank goodness eveything was fine, she was just a bit smooshed in there but she was also 8.5 pds......she is 28 months now.....my fibroids never shrunk or went away, in fact the fibroids grew together to form two larger ones....they were 2cm & 6 cm......then the fibroids got larger & hit nerves on my back & that was painful.......well after dealing with all this pain & discomfort I opted for a myomecomy instead of a hysterectomy.....i had laprascopic surgery yesterday.....my fibroids were 10.5cm & five small ones inside the big one.....the fibroids were larger than my uterus.......i am happy to be recovering right now & hope i can get back to my normal routine soon......i went to several Dr's for their opinions....my OB wanted me to have a hysterectomy, the acupuncturist said the fibroids were to big, the homeopathic Dr said the can only shrink them if they are 2-3 cm.........but the Dr i ended going with only specialies in laprascopic surgery & since my sister works in the hospital that this Dr works at, she said he got a lot of great reviews from nurses & other Dr's.......well every woman is unique & so is everyone's body......what might work for one person doesnt always happen to another, good or bad.......also my sister works in labor & delivery & she said she has seen Dr's give a patient a c-section to have the baby & to remove the fibroids....i hope i have helped you

Hi E.,
Fibroids run in my family so I was worried when I had one the same size and place as yours, but I just had my baby girl on Sunday and NONE of the problems I had were from the fibroid at all; I actually forgot I had it because it has never caused me any problems. They actually found mine a couple of years ago when I had an ultrasound for an ovarian cyst. Anyway, my mom and my aunts all had problems from them during their pregnancies from the intrauterine ones, but mostly the problems there are that they compete for room with the baby because they are on the inside of the uterus. You should be fine, I would trust your doctor on this one. Good Luck!!

Wow! Lots of info so far! For what it is worth, because yours is on the outside wall, I personally would not do anything about it unless you did start having any pain, bleeding or other issues. Fibroids run in my family. My mother (after having five healthy children--with the fibroids present) eventually had a hysterectomy (hers were huge!) after she was done having kids. In my case, mine were so numerous (13) and large that my doctor at the time recommended and performed a myomectomy and removed all of them, the largest being the size of a large orange. Because removal involved cutting into the wall of my uterus, I was told that if I did have kids, I would be required to have a c-section to avoid the risk of the uterus rupturing during labor. A few years later, I had no problem getting pregnant (also at 31!) (with twins!) and had the c-section (scar is in the same place as for myomectomy). I have since had one more child and because of my history, I do get ultrasounds more often then most. A few fibroids have developed in the past few years and seem to be causing heavier than normal bleeding but otherwise I have no symptoms. For another perspective, my sister also had a myomectomy similar to mine and ended up with so much scar tissue, she was unable to conceive and had to adopt their son even after several rounds of in-vtro work. YOu really don't know how it will turn out. The older we get as woman who are having kids later in life, the more likely it is that we have fibroids and the more difficult it is to conceive anyway and if something isn't causing you pain or other symptoms, I would not mess with it until after one was done with pregancy to be on the safe side. My two cents! I hope I was helpful!

I have also had large fibroids, but mine had to be removed because they were inside the uterus and would have interfered with pregnancy. Problem is, now I have too much scar tissue from the sugeries to get pregnant. If your fibroid is on the outside, you shouldn't have any troubles trying to conceive. Just make sure your doctors are aware of it so they can monitor it. Good luck on your trying to conceive journey!

My mother bore several children with uterine fibroids including me. I bore a with uterine fibroids growing in my uterus. My daughter had her son while she had uterine fibroids. And other female relatives of ours did the same.
Doctors tend to want to take out the fibroids now that they can. In my mother's time the sacrifice of the uterus was the only method. She waited until she was 40 to have it done.
I toughed it out and now they are the size of a quarter on my uterine wall.

My advice is if your baby is growing as he/she develops the fibroid(s) have to move aside for her/him. You can do a vaginal delivery.

Don't be frightened of what doctors tell you. And, you could go for accupuncture to shrink the fibroids as I did.

Hi E.,
I was diagnosed with several uterine fibroids, some 5cm & 6cm, when I was 34. I had just gotten married and we planned on having children, at least one. My husband and I went to several specialists to figure out what to do. There was a slight concern about where the egg might implant, that it would result in a miscarriage but the risk was small. Surgery could make it more difficult to conceive because of the scar tissue it would leave plus it would mean major surgery and possibly a less comfortable pregnancy.
We had to wait for other reasons to get pregnant but when we decided to try I got pregnant within a month when I was 37, (my son just turned 1 last month). We had a few ultrasounds while I was pregnant to monitor the fibroids and the baby. My pregnancy was great but I had two episodes when some of the smaller fibroids died off, that was very painful but we had expected it to happen. What happens is that some fibroids get chocked off from the blood supply and others grow faster because of the higher estrogen levels. It was very funny at times because one of my larger fibroids moved around with the baby and as the baby grew you could actually see the fibroid lump, size of a baseball, and watch it move with the baby. At first no one believed me and thought it had to be the baby's head but I was right and had to just find humor in it.
During my pregnancy I swam three times a week and went to belly dancing once a week but really did not do much else (like I was supposed to). My labor was beautiful, painful, drug free and amazing and none of it was hindered by my fibroids. Now though I have many more fibroids and the older ones are much larger and I have been told to have a hysterectomy because my uterus is the size of a four month pregnant uterus and the fibroids will soon be causing me troubles. It makes me sad because I question if I really only want one birth experience and I wonder If I had gotten pregnant when I was first diagnosed I might have had time to have another child (I am not ready for a second this soon but did not want to have my options taken away).
My advice would be to get pregnant now and not to worry, enjoy every minute of it. My Naturopathic Doctor recommended a high fiber diet, tons of fresh raw foods and if you eat meat, dairy and eggs to get hormone free. All of these things help to slow the growth of fibroids. I am not an example of healthy eating, fast food is my friend, so I cannot attest to the benefits but not only would it be good for you but also very healthy for the baby no matter what else.
Good luck and don't worry.
K. R.

Hi! I am 32 and have very large (10cm and 8 cm) fibroids. I had my first child a year ago. During my pregnancy, I had some pain from the fibroid for about a month and then it went away.The only complications I had were that pain and then my daughter being breech which meant that I had to have a c-section but that was it. My fibroids actually shrank during my pregnancy and I honestly have no plans to remove them before we try and get pregnant again. I guess my fear was more of having surgery to remove them.

Hi E.,

I was also diagnosed with a fibroid about the same size about 6 years ago.. after that I got pregnant and have had 2 successful pregnancies. I have a very healthy active almost 3 year old and am up in the middle of the night right now nursing my 4 week old. the only thing they did different is monitor it when i had ultrasounds but it was never a big deal. It did grow a little with the 1st pregnancy and then shrunk back again. Never felt it, no complications.. I wouldnt do anything unless it presents a problem, i also got pregnant both times immediatly, so please dont worry about it and best of luck to you!!!

In response to Michelle's mother's situation, when I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids the doctor order tests to determine the possibility of cancer. One test was a blood test that measured something that I no longer remember the name of. The result for me was a normal level. If one is concerned about cancer the doctor can repeat the test at a later time and if the measurement has increased then that may indicate cancer. If the test is once again normal then the patient can be less concerned.

I would not recommend surgery just in case it might be cancer. Today, the medical world has less invasive ways to determine whether or not one has cancer. I would follow my doctor's recommendation. If I were unsure I'd get a second opinion as well as do research as you are doing.

I really don't want to scared you, but I only have experience with two women with fibroids. My mom's doctor found a fibroid. He told her that they are harmless and common and to ignore it. She pitched a fit and insisted he get it out. When he removed it and tested it, he found it riddled with very rare type of cancer. Totally uncurable, and the only way to treat it is to remove tumors as they appear. When she found out about all of this and started asking around, she found another family member with the same thing.

So, if it were me, I'd have it removed and not take the chance.

Hello, please have this taken care of. I unexpectedly got pregnant (in the middle of adopting) and had fibroids prior to getting pregnant. One fibroid grew at an excelerated rate, burst and I ended up in the hospital, emergency surgery with the doctor stating that if he could save my life, he wasn't at all sure he could save the baby. We were blessed with wonderful surgeons, three had to work hard to stop the bleeding, and we all survived. I wouldn't wish this horrible experience on anyone, especially if you can have this taken care of before hand. My prayers are with you no matter what you do.

L.

I too had a 7cm fibroid, but mine was within the back uterine wall. It was partially intruding into my uterus and partially pushing on nerves in my back. Needless to say I had complications because of it. I was unable to get pregnant and when I finally had it removed the surgeon found 8 other fibroids about the size of the end of a pinky finger and my left ovary was covered in endometriosis. I had the surgery while we in the middle of an international adoption so we didn't try to get pregnant right away. 2 years after the surgery we started trying and had no luck.

There are some women who are able to get pregnant with fibroids and some who cannot. I just happen to be one who cannot.

As far as having it removed goes... my incision was supposed to be fairly small. When the surgeon looked inside he found all of the other stuff so I have a scar the size of a c-section scar. Basically I had a c-section with no baby. It was much more major than I originally anticipated.

Hi E.,

I just did research today on Uterine Fibroids. Here is the article. If you need any questions asked just e-mail me. Also, if you don't use the right products then you won't get the right results.

Dear Friends,
I received this information and wanted to pass it on. My mother has had trouble with cysts in her breasts and the vitamin E will take them away when she stays on the Vita-E and Soy. Thought I would add that to this testimony.
Heather Weiland
UTERINE FIBROID TUMORS / sent by Ramona Elrod
My cousin had several fibroid tumors and her medical doctor recommended taking Vitamin E. She ordered the Shaklee Vita-E (400 IU). After taking it 3 weeks she was reexamined and was pleased to find the tumors practically gone.
The doctor asked if she was using Vitamin E and was happy to know she was.
When he asked what brand she was taking, she replied. He told her that Shaklee was the very best brand and to be sure to stay with it, for it was the Vitamin E that was best absorbed into the system. She uses 6 Vita-E per day.
______________________
Uterine Fibroids:
Dietary Recommendations
Eat only hormone-free meats, poultry, and dairy products.
Eat soy foods regularly. (Soy is made differently by each company making it so please be VERY CAREFUL what you take)
Limit dietary fat to 25 percent of daily caloric intake.
Avoid polyunsaturated vegetable oils, margarine, vegetable shortening, all partially hydrogenated oils, and all foods (such as deep-fried foods) that might contain trans-fatty acids. Increase omega-3 fatty acids. Eat plenty of organically grown fruits and vegetables.
Sharon O'Donnell
Forwarded Message:
Subj: Dealing with fybroids
8/2002

From: (Bob Ferguson)
The following article is long but an eye-opener on the subject of fybroids and treatments available.
I too was diagnosed with inter-uterine fybroids at age 48 and at 50 my OB/GYN recommended hysterectomy. In the same breath he attempted to get me on HRT, admitting that the introduction of estrogen would cause the fybroids to grow, but telling me I would get old before my years if I didn't go on hormones. (He didn't want to hear about Shaklee). To his frustration, my choice, since I was having menopausal symptoms anyway, was to decline the surgery and wait to see if the fybroids would shrink as I progressed into a post-menopausal state. Obviously I chose NOT to go on Hormone Replacement Therapy. My doctor was MOST persuasive and when I declined his advice, basically told me he couldn't work with me, if I wouldn't take his professional advice.
Had I not been somewhat informed (thanks to all the wonderful women in Shaklee who have addressed women's health issues on tapes and seminars) I too may have succumbed to hysterectomy, HRT or both!! I changed doctors, adjusted my supplement regimen, managed to shrink the fybroids in six weeks, and waited out menopuase. I am now 57 completely postmenopausal, very healthy, fybroids are GONE, I still have all my parts and have never taken HRT AND with Enfuselle and all the wonderful Shaklee products , I'm told I look YOUNGER than my years!! I am so happy I made the decision I did.
Hope my story above and the article below may be of help to others.
AntheaTripp
This article from NYTimes.com
Women Seek Choices When Fibroid Tumors Strike
August 27, 2002 By LINDA VILLAROSA
Several years ago, Monique Brown, a writer and editor from Brooklyn, visited a physician, worried about her heavy periods and bleeding between menstruation.
Her disorder was diagnosed as fibroids, she said, noncancerous tumors that can grow in the uterus. It's normal she recalled being told. Everybody has them.
Ms. Brown was sent home with a prescription for birth control pills to help regulate her period. But after six months and several more doctors, she said, she watched her abdomen expand and decided to go to a fibroid specialist. From the specialist she received the news that at age 27 she was headed for a hysterectomy. How could something go from `It's no problem,' to, `You need a hysterectomy'? Ms. Brown, now 32, remembered asking.
I was shocked. I wanted to have children. But at that point, I had no husband and no prospects. After more doctors' visits and bleeding so heavy that she suffered severe anemia and had to wear adult diapers, Ms. Brown found a physician who removed four fibroids using a procedure that removes tumors while leaving the uterus intact, a myomectomy.
She was so frustrated by her seven-year experience, she said, and so alarmed on learning that fibroids were much more common in African-American women than women of other races that she wrote a self-help book, It's a Sistah
Thing: A Guide to Understanding and Dealing With Fibroids for Black Women, which Dafina Kensington will publish next month.
Even if fibroids are a common problem, Ms. Brown said, if they are causing this kind of suffering, there needs to be a solution. But not a solution that prevents women from ever having children.
Fibroids, the most common tumor in women's reproductive tracts, generally develop in women in their 30's and 40's. In the past, few alternatives, if any, to removing the uterus were available to eliminate the fibroids and their often debilitating side effects. If the symptoms were severe enough, most women accepted that treatment, however unhappily, because, in most cases they had already had children. But as increasing numbers of women have chosen to delay childbirth, they often learn they have fibroids before they have had children.
Fibroids can also cause pregnancy complications and infertility. In the last 10 years, more women like Ms. Brown have pressed for information about causes of fibroids and for alternatives to hysterectomies. Women's health experts have aggressively questioned why the hysterectomy, performed an estimated 600,000 times a year in the United States remains the fallback treatment for fibroids.
The demographics of childbearing have dramatically changed the scope of fibroid treatment, said Dr. Elizabeth Stewart, clinical director of the Center for Uterine Fibroids at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
It is very obvious to us that we are seeing women in their 30's and even 40's developing fibroids before childbearing, which was so rare in our mothers' day, Dr. Stewart said. The feeling has long been that hysterectomy cured the problem and finding another avenue wasn't important. Women have been instrumental in changing that perception.
In the spring, Senators Jean Carnahan, Democrat of Missouri; James M. Jeffords, independent of Vermont; and Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, introduced the Uterine Fibroids Research and Education Act of 2002, which joins a similar House bill introduced last year. The legislation calls for allocating $10 million a year for four years toward research on fibroids through the National Institutes of Health. That would be a twentyfold increase over the projected budget for fibroid research for this year. The bill also asks for an educational campaign. This is a disease that is important to fertility, longevity and health of millions of women, and it is being ignored, said Carla Dionne, who lobbied for the measures and is the executive director of the National Uterine Fibroids Foundation. There's been a lot of lip service about how high the hysterectomy rate is, she said, but so little energy goes toward looking at the underlying reasons why. Even with additional treatments, alternatives to hysterectomies are far from perfect. Research has increased in the last 10 years, but financing remains scarce. This year, the National Institutes of Health allocated $3 million to study fibroids and endometriosis, which affects the lining of uterus. In comparison, research into urinary tract infections received nearly $15 million. The relatively low financing, said Dr. Vivian Pinn, the director of the N.I.H. Office of Research on Women's Health, makes it hard to generate excitement among scientists for fibroid research. The scientific and health care communities need to recognize that this is not just something that they have known about for years, Dr. Pinn said, but a very serious problem for women and their families.
Dr. Pinn said that many women in her family had hysterectomies because of fibroids and that she had the condition. We at the N.I.H. need to encourage research and scientists need to pay more attention to the topic, she said. Dr. Phyllis Leppert, chief of the reproductive sciences branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said her agency was seeking additional research on the subject. We made it a priority in our branch two years ago, and have tried to get grants on the topic, she said. We've seen an increase in interest, but we definitely need more scientists to get excited about the area.
Experts in the field say that at least 30 percent of all women have fibroids, and most suggest the figure is much higher. Some estimate 70 percent. In a study that is often quoted but that will not be published until December, researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences conducted sonograms on more than 1,000 women from 35 to 49 randomly selected from a health maintenance organization in Washington and found surprisingly high rates of fibroids. Fifty percent of white women had fibroids and 72 percent of African-American women did.
Reproductive hormones, particularly estrogen, stimulate fibroid development and growth. Fibroids tend to develop in the reproductive years and shrink after menopause. Older women with fibroids who are not bothered by severe symptoms often just wait until they go away as hormones decrease. No one is clear why fibroids are more common in black women than in women of other races. Figures from the Nurses' Health Study show that the incidence rate for uterine fibroids among blacks is three times as great as it is among whites and that black women have fibroids diagnosed earlier than their white counterparts. Recent studies have pointed to a genetic link, and fibroids tend to run in families.
Last year, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, in the Department of Health and Human Services, issued an extensive report on managing fibroids that found a remarkable lack of high quality evidence supporting effectiveness of most interventions for symptomatic fibroids.
Patients, clinicians, and policy makers, the report said, do not have the data they need to make truly informed decisions about appropriate treatment. Women and their physicians are left to muddle through the options.
Although hysterectomy may be the best treatment for some women, myomectomy is often a better choice, because it allows the removal of the fibroids while keeping the uterus intact. Depending on the size and location of the fibroids, the procedure is sometimes performed with a laparoscope or hysteroscope, telescopelike instruments that permit the women to avoid abdominal surgery. The major drawback of myomectomy, however, is that fibroids often return. Dr. Stewart said studies showed that after a myomectomy a woman had a 50 percent chance that another fibroid would be identified on an ultrasound in 10 years and a 15 percent chance that anot! her operation would be performed.
Uterine artery embolization, introduced in the United States in the mid-1990's, is an increasingly popular treatment. The procedure, performed by an interventional radiologist, blocks the blood flow to the tumor, causing it to shrink. About 20,000 to 25,000 procedures have been performed worldwide, most in the United States
Although the procedure is less invasive than surgery, little is known about the long-term effects, particularly the effects on future fertility. Though U.A.E. is a relatively safe option for women and is increasingly available, Dr. Stewart said, there is the concern that it might not be optimal for women who want children. The ovaries share blood supply with the uterus, and it's not clear how cutting off the blood flow will affect the ovaries and the uterus, as well. Despite the lack of research dollars, scientists are looking at causes and treatment of fibroid tumors. The laboratory of women's health at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park N.C., has begun the Fibroid Growth Study to look at why some fibroids grow to become problems for women and others do not. The lead investigator of the study, Dr. Barbara Davis, said she hoped to have some results next year. We want to find out what is it that makes tumors grow and what are the molecular and tissue changes that occur over time associated with growth,Dr. Davis said.
The Center for Uterine Fibroids in Boston has enrolled 465 pairs of sisters to look for specific genes that may cause fibroids. Researchers there are also examining the effectiveness of focused ultrasound heating, monitored and controlled by magnetic resonance imaging, as an alternative to surgery.
In Fairfax Va., the Society of Interventional Radiology, in connection with Duke University, is compiling a registry to study the effects of uterine artery embolization and compare it to other treatments.
As the science inches forward, Ms. Dionne of the National Uterine Fibroids Foundation urged women to learn about fibroids and examine all options. She learned she had fibroids 17 years ago, at 28, she said, and was repeatedly told that she needed a hysterectomy. She suffered with bleeding that she says took over my life until she had embolization in 1998.
You have to know, she said, what choices are out there and know how to ask for them.

N.
Wellness Coach