If you have fibroids and this has caused heavy periods, what non-surgical interventions have you considered that have worked for you? I'm very worried about having surgery in the covid world and wanted to wait and watch, but DH thinks I should just fix the problem now. Was reading that birth control pills may help? I'm 46 so may even go into menopause eventually so not sure about rushing into surgery. But my periods are so weird now and the bleeding recently was excessive and continuous for almost a month. WWYD? Really appreciate any life experiences that you can share.
I know many people who have had this surgery and non-surgical interventions didn't really work for any of them :( All ended up with the surgery, eventually. You could certainly try bcp and if it doesn't work after a few months, go the surgery route. they may even be able to do it laproscopically, which is MUCH better as a surgical option.
Bcp will help for sure. I had then from when I was a teenager and one grew and ruptured during my first pregnancy. Terrifying experience
Thanks, I have had fibroids since I was young too. How did you deal with the ruptured fibroid? Thats indeed terrifying.
nothing to do but ride it out when it happens. I had one once and the pain was so horrible, I was afraid I wouldn't live until the morning. It is unnaturally painful.
@Anonymous thank you for sharing
Mirena. I got it at 36 and am 40 now. No complaints. I do still bleed from time to time, but nothing like the bloodbaths from before.
I had fibroid surgery twice, once at 27 and once at 32, because I had two fibroids that grew quickly and had to be removed. They were so huge I looked pregnant. I tried everything non-surgical to get rid of them, researched all the options, and tried to do stuff to cause them to shrink.
I went to a doctor was one of the leading fibroid researchers in the world, and she repeatedly told me that there was no evidence that diet or any of what I was doing had any effect on fibroid growth, and the only food she really recommended avoiding was soy. She also told me that the other treatments besides myomectomy (fibroid removal surgery) that you hear about are not effective, or only effective for very specific kinds of fibroids. I didn't want to hear this and she was really patient with me trying all these natural ways to shrink them! But eventually I just had the surgery and it was a huge relief.
At 35 I discovered I had a third fibroid growing. Around that time, a study had come out that showed that women with fibroids tended to have vitamin D deficiencies. I had discovered I had pretty low Vit D levels, so I megadosed on vitamin D (50,000 IU a week for 3 months then dropping down to a more reasonable dosage). I've maintained the Vit D intake and the third fibroid doesn't grow. I get regular ultrasounds to be sure. My doc the fibroid expert thinks that the Vit D intake is the reason why this third fibroid hasn't gone crazy like the others, and it's been about 6 years.
I don't think taking Vit D will shrink the ones you have, but it might keep them from getting bigger.
I'm always recommending to people to just go ahead and have the surgery - you will feel better. And don't let people pressure you into getting a hysterectomy if you don't want one. Even though you are close to menopause. Personally I want to keep my uterus regardless, and a myomectomy with intact uterus is perfectly effective.
thank you for your insights, truly helpful
@ Anonymous All that said though, while you are waiting out covid, non surgical stuff can help you feel at least a little better in the meantime. I got a lot of relief from chiropractic, which you also can't do now :( but stretching, exercise, and diet changes can help with pain/bleeding even if they don't shrink the fibroids. check this out, study my doc worked on: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25445104/
@Anonymous thank you So much for taking the time! Really appreciate it!
I’m the Mirena enthusiast from above. I was never offered myomectomy (I have so many fibroids), but other options were uterine ablation and hysterectomy.
I'm long winded replier from above - I think my doc was pretty rare because all her work is about "uterus preserving surgery" even with complicated cases. I think it's still hard to find docs who want to do this or will offer it :(
@Anonymous I mean, when one's uterus is more fibroid than not, to me it makes sense to remove the organ. I'm not particularly tied to it for any reason as I'm done bearing children. It's not hormone producing like ovaries. But for obvious reasons, I'd love to avoid surgery in general. So glad the Mirena works in my case!