Uterine fibroids

[pplwatching]

My wife has been diagnosed with uterine fibroids. After reading around on the Internet it appears that 3 out of 4 women have them, but only 1 in 4 ever experience any problems related to them.

The Dr wants to prescribe oral contraceptives to reduce the symptoms. OC's don't shrink or reduce the fibroids, they just help reduce the symptoms. Our issue with this approach is that in the past hormonal birth control has had the side effect of significantly reducing her sex drive. Since going off of OC's a couple of years ago, we've had a good sex life and we'd both like to see that continue.

With a statistic like 1 out of 4 women, there must be a great deal of collective experience out there to draw on. What has your experience been? We've read about several methods of dealing with these. If you have had (or have) uterine fibroids, how did you deal with them? If you chose surgury, how did it go? If you chose OC's, did it really help with the symptoms?

Thanks.

 

[Cathleen]

"Watchful waiting" is what my doctors advised and it was worth it. I had 3 (or 4), one was very large and I did have some cramping that wasn't comfortable of course but it wasn't bad enough to do anything. My doctors said often they will disappear on their own and luckily mine did -- that watchful waiting thing.

I hope things are too bad for her and good luck to her.

 

[bitslinger]

I hope things are too bad for her and good luck to her.

It's always interesting when a typo is exactly at the worst possible place

Her last two periods lasted a little over two weeks each, and her cycle is skewed to around 6 or 7 weeks. At first we thought she might be pregnant because she'd "missed" a period and had sore ovaries. Her obgyn moved away, so this was the family physician making the reccomendation. I guess we need to find a new obgyn so we have a second opinion from someone who sees it more often.

Thanks.

 

[Cathleen]

Ouch, that is a bad typo.

I agree it's smart to get a new OB/GYN.

What's with the two names? I meant to ask that back when you were redecorating for your wife... was it successful? (Since I'm bringing it up.)

 

[Bidin~Time]

maybe this site will give you some information.

http://www.healthline.com/search?q1...mpaign=serp&utm_term=treatment fibroid tumors

 

[Laila88]

.....

 

[pplwatching]

First, let me say that my wife's health is my top priority. Having said that ... talk about the cruel hand of fate. I don't know if you saw my other "good news only" post, but it turns out that the trouble with my wife's ovaries is causing a hormone imbalance which has driven up her sex drive. I feel like I have such a conflict of interest if I suggest 'watchful waiting'.

What's with the two names? I meant to ask that back when you were redecorating for your wife... was it successful? (Since I'm bringing it up.)

You have a good memory. Since you asked ... Once again things are a' changin'. We were on vacation in Korea late last spring when dumb luck put us on an upscale floor. The room had heated floors (bathroom and bedroom) and traditional Korean furniture. The bed was basically a big futon matress, sans frame, that could be pushed aside and folded over to make extra room. It was very romantic and I told my wife I wanted to redecorate our bedroom like that. A couple of months ago, I stumbled on a sale of beautfiul blond bamboo flooring so I pounced and got enough to do our bedroom (even tho I didn't have the time to start just then). Now that consistant warm weather is here, I will install it and then go furniture hunting. I found some the last time I was in San Jose in "Korean Town" but shipping would kill. So far, she has not mentioned the ever present remodelling going on around the house.

I have some pics if you are interested. You just have to imagine bamboo floors because the hotel had some sort of thick vinyl/linolium. At first lit wouldn't let me upload them because they exceed a size limit. I made them smaller but now it is complaining that they have to be less than 800 x 600. I can resize them again if you'd like to have a look, or I can e-mail them.

The name thing was originally to keep my story writing persona separate from my regular posts, and every so often I login to make sure it doesn't evaporate. I'm not sure how long Lit lets you go before it expires a user name. Sometimes I forget who I'm logged in as and I post something. Then I have to try to keep follow up posts right.

Thanks

 

[Cathleen]

You do have quite the dilemma on your hands about your wife's sex drive. What's a man to do?

I'd love to see pictures. I think bamboo flooring is great. I've worked with a lot of design people and I've seen bamboo, cork, etc floors. It can really add excellent texture to the project. Your wife must be quite patient and understanding.

Thanks on the name thing, I was being nosey. Makes sense and I have no idea if Lit gets rid of accounts.

 

[FurryFury]

It is said that a second opinion is very smart and will save a patient money in a recent study.

I don't know much about this particular aliment. A good friend of mine had it. She had one doc that wanted to take out her ovaries and sought a second opinion.

She asked about. Found out who the "best" doc was supposed to be. He did a much less radical surgery on her. She was happy.

That's all I can add.

Good luck and best wishes to you and your wife.

Fury

 

[pplwatching]

Thanks for the wishes. I had read through the Mayo Clinic's web site on this, and it points out that because there's no 'immediate threat' from this (asisde from discomfort) that it's okay to take time to choose a therapy. My wife is not eager to go back on the pill, but at the same time her 2 week period and cramps left her kind of exhausted. It's her body and her choice of course, but I don't want her to have to go through that either. Has anyone tried any of the other therapies, especially the less invasive surgeries that spare the ovaries?

These are pictures of the room that we stayed in, and inspired the look that I'm after. I've thrashed around with resizing some pics, but the color quality suffered. Outside of the sliding glass door (hidden by curtains in the pics) was a manicured garden with a breakfast table. Our climate won't support those plants, but I have already added a patio outside of our bedroom that I can landscape. The walls in the hotel room were a bit sparse for my tastes, but you get the idea. I am not sure if I can deal with the floor-table, but I really enjoyed the room.

 

[Cathleen]

Nice pictures, thanks for taking the time to post them. I really like the bathroom door and the sliding door framing. I'm with you about the floor as table.

As for the fibroids, I did the waiting and was glad since it resolved itself. I hope she isn't in a lot of pain and can give time a chance.

(Double checked for typos on this one. ; ) )

 

[christabelll]

HI, I know you don't know me. But I want to put in my three or four pennies here...

IF you are into alternative health care practices go to an accupuncturist. They can do quite a bit to alleviate and eleminate not just the symptoms but the causes of the imbalance.

If you like holistic medicines I can reccommend the following to help ease the difficulties:

Red Raspberry Leaf Tea or Tincture (4 cups of tea or 4 drops per cup of water)
This will help regulate her period (This is good for ever)

False Unicorn Root tea or tincture (2 cups tea or 4 drops per cup of water)
Wild Yam or Don Quai Tincture 4 -8 drops per cup
These two will alkalinize the ovaries helping her body shed unusual buildup of endometrium (Take for no more than 90 days)

Evening Primrose oil (2 capsules a day for no longer than 30 days straight) Will help the body reduce the fibroids, calm cramps and ease tender breasts.

The above items deal specifically with balancing her ovaries and uterus.

Oat straw tea taken regularly can and does increase the sex drive of men and women respectively.

ANd contrary to what the doctors what you to beleive you Do not have to do what they say you should.

Typically doctors like to prescribe a very low dose BC for three to six months if the periods are unusually off schedule. It shouldn't affect the sex drive at such low doses however, being a super sensitive gal myself, if its happened before it will probably happen again.


I hope you find this information helpful.

 

[Noor]

okay, I had functional ovarian cysts that were causing fibroid to grow, and flooding. Birth control pills made them worse. My sex drive went up very high when I wasn't bleeding (flooding). Since the cysts seemed to love excess estrogen and hormones, I decided, after consulting with several doctors regular and alternative, to starve them.

There are some cancerous ovarian cysts that can cause fibroid so its good to rule them out. I had several ultrasounds over a 6 month period, and yep they were growing. Then I had a pet ct scan with contrast dye taken orally and then intravenously. Afterwards my dr said it was 85% that it wasn't cancer, but the only way to make sure was to do a complete hysterectomy. The scan had ruled out the easily treatable cancers.

After researching the 15% type it could be, and the success in treating it, .05% survival rate on 3 yrs after successful bone marrow transplant, I told my dr. I would rather die if I had that anyway. Mt doctor was in shock, but if you consider the odds of a successful bone marrow transplant and also that there were no odds for longer than 3 yr periods that I could find, anyway... I got some second opinions and read a bunch of research on it as well as speak to researchers and made my decision.

I got Dr Lee's book on pre-menopause and started using natural progesterone cream. I stopped eating any food with hormones in it. Luckily chicken in my state must be hormone free plus we have some coops and whole foods to sell other hormone free meat and eggs. I also eliminated the plant hormones like the ones in soy. It took about 4 months for the flooding to stop, and for the first year I could start it by eating meat with hormones, but now after 5 yrs its pretty much a non issue. I haven't died or anything so I am assuming that I didn't have that rare cancer or it went into long term remission.

I don't know if this will help you but it has worked so far for me.


on evening primrose- it does seem to help but it wasn't enough for me alone. I should also mention I make sure to eat very well and I take vitamins, a multi, b50's, biotin and either evening primrose, fish oil, borage oil, black currant oil or flax seed oil-what ever is least expensive. I was taking black cohosh for a while too. if you take fish oil get the enteric ones or the no fishy odor ones.

Oh, on birth control pills I lose interest in sex and I can't smell men.

 

[christabelll]

Yes Awesome! Pat yourself on the back for refusing that option. Doc's seem only all to willing to remove an essential part of the female anatomy.

The herbs I reccommended are to regulate more than anything.
mea culpa - I did forget the progesterone aspect ....
There are many very good sources of progesterone cremes/serums available. They also make the skin feel fantastic.

I truly and deeply believe accupunture and herbs will make the difference.
And I agree whole heartedly that a lot of female problems in the past 30 years have been brought on by the use of hormones and soy products in our foods which throw an already sensitive system out of balance further. I was shocked to discover that more than 85% of all processed foods out there (not organic or "whole" foods, contain soy products. The same goes for our meats, eggs, and dairy having very high amounts of hormones in them.

For me, though I eliminated all processed foods and non organic products from my diet it did nothing to help except I no longer had allergic reactions to the food I was eating (the drops in a water barrel type of allergy).

I chose, not my doctor, me, to have a hysterectomy a few years ago. Bleeding out with my periods and having developing fibroids I said the hell with it. I got to keep my ovaries. Then complications took one ovary and last year the other had developed a ten pound hemoraghic cyst that damn near killed me. I am now in surgical menopause. I take estrogen (.05) and use progesterone creme to keep myself from drying up and turning into my grandmother hahahah...

The whole point to all of this is: If you don't like the options given by western medicine, try eastern and holistic - homeopathic remedies. Experiement. Research. FInd what works for you and then do it.

Good Luck one and all....