By Susan Tellem

Many women with painful fibroids decide to “wing it” without any
treatment in the belief that their fibroids will disappear during
menopause.  For years, doctors would tell their patients that fibroids
shrink after the change of life.  But patients with fibroids ended up
undergoing a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) instead before
menopause because symptoms worsened.  Why?  It’s because there’s an
unknown substance secreted by fat cells that mimics the effect of
estrogen on fibroids.  It makes fibroids grow, as does estrogen
replacement therapy.  Fibroids affect 40 percent of all females.

“At the Fibroid Treatment Collective (FTC), we observed an interesting
phenomenon in the late 1990s after we introduced uterine artery
embolization (UAE) to the U.S. in 1994,” said OB-GYN expert Bruce
McLucas, M.D. and founder of the FTC.  “Women who had been our fibroid
patients in previous years, returned in their early 50s to have UAE.
We asked why they waited, and they all had the same story. While they
believe UAE would be successful, they believed that menopause would
shrink the fibroids.  However, almost every patient returned during
menopause with bigger fibroids.”  Hysterectomies which resulted in the
inability to conceive children used to be the only treatment, but with
UAE, fibroids can be successfully treated permanently without surgery
and allows fertility to be preserved.

Dr. McLucas says that the best time to treat fibroids that are causing
painful symptoms like heavy bleeding, frequent urination, back ache or
leg pains, is right now.  “If you’re in your late 40s, you are also in
what amounts to an ‘estrogen bath,’ ” Dr. McLucas said.   He added
that right before menopause, when estrogen is removed from the body as
the ovaries stop functioning, women will experience several months or
years of estrogen dominated menstrual cycles.  Since fibroids are
estrogen sensitive, there is almost always a growth spurt for
fibroids.

“Waiting for a few years for fibroids to shrink during menopause is
likely to result in a few more years of growth and worsening symptoms
of pain and bleeding instead,” the doctor pointed out.

Women interested in learning more can join a live chat Monday through
Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST at www.fibroids.com.  For more
information about fibroids, visit www.fibroids.com or call
866.362.6463; visit Twitter @fibroiddoctor; and become a Facebook fan
at http://www.facebook.com/fibroids.

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