Mayo Clinic Minute - Know Your Uterine Fibroid Treatment Options

They are not uncommon and can be harmless. But for some, uterine fibroids can affect quality of life. Fibroids can cause predominantly two groups of symptoms. One is bleeding symptoms where the person experiences very heavy or prolonged periods. The second category of symptoms most commonly experienced by people with fibroids are called bulk symptoms. And that's just when fibroids get so large that they begin to exert a lot of pressure, heaviness in the in the pelvis, or they can press on surrounding organs like the bladder or the colon and cause difficulty with urination, frequent urination or difficulty passing bowel movements.

Treatments can depend on the size and location of the fibroids. Non-surgical options may include monitoring them if they don't cause bothersome symptoms or medications to shrink the fibroids. The most traditional treatment option is a surgery called a myomectomy. It's done by your gynecologist or a fibroid specialist and it's a procedure where we cut into the uterus to remove the fibroid and then sew the uterus back up so that it's preserved for future pregnancy. Newer, minimally invasive options include radiofrequency fibroid ablation, and uterine fibroid embolization that allow most patients to go home the same day with shorter recovery times. There are a variety of surgical options available, but the number one message, Dr. Michelle Louie wants patients to know is help is available and that we can help them achieve a higher quality of life and they don't have to suffer from fibroid related symptoms. For the Mayo Clinic News Network. I'm DeeDee Stiepan.

Testimonial for Dr. Michelle Louie - Andrea Lepps

So I had these heavy bleedings, just different things and I was thinking it was my hormone. Several attempts going to naturopathies, spending all this money doing - just doing what I thought was good. I so happened to go to my primary care, realized there were fibroid there. And so I'm like, okay, I understand why I had the pain, I had the bleeding, just all the different things that were going on in my body.

A fibroid is a benign tumor of the uterus. And that means that the muscle portion of the uterus starts to grow and creates this separate mass that can cause a variety of menstrual symptoms or pain for patients. It's not cancerous, but it does grow separately from the uterus. And that's why it can cause issues that require treatment.

I was a little discouraged. I was a lot discouraged. And so when I came home, I just began to look on the Internet. And the first thing came to mind, I did look up Mayo Clinic and I came across Dr. Louie. I made my appointment. It was so reassuring and I had a peace. I had such a peace being there with her that okay, I don't have to live with this. I don't have to live in discomfort.

Andrea had a myomectomy. Myomectomy is a procedure in which we removed the fibroid from the uterus. That requires making skin incision and uterine incision to remove the fibroids. And then we repair the uterus so that it's functional for future pregnancy. The way that we did that for Andrea's case is laparoscopically, so there were four small incisions in the abdominal skin and that's what we consider a minimally invasive procedure compared to a large incision like a C-section incision or an up and down incision. Radiofrequency fibroid ablation is one of the newer techniques we have to treat fibroids. It's a very popular treatment because it allows for preservation of the uterus so we don't have to remove the uterus. And it's also a very minimally invasive technique to treat the fibroids. There are two ways to do the ablation of the fibroids. One is vaginally with no incisions at all, and a very short recovery time of one to two days. And the other is laparoscopically with just two small abdominal incisions and a recovery time of about five to seven days. These procedures are very minimally invasive and have a very short recovery time which is very important to our patients of course.

The entire experience was good just going in. Dr. Louie let me know: this is what's going to be done, and after surgery, this is what you need to do. This may not be for everyone else. I didn't have to take any painkillers. Like I said, the pain, there's no pain. There is no pain. There is no heavy. So for me, that's awesome quality of life.

The most important thing I would like patients to know is seek out a fibroid specialist. If you are having menstrual issues or gynecologic issues, don't accept no for an answer and get your questions answered. Make sure you're satisfied with the answer and seek a specialist if you're not, because there are a variety of options available to you and we want to make sure that you have access to all of them.

There is help. You don't have to live in discomfort and be at peace.