My Uterine Embolization Experience

Hello everyone. I'm finally posting after lurking for some time as I tried to decide the best procedure to treat my uterine fibroids and hope my experience can help someone struggling with whether or not to have a hysterectomy or try an alternative procedure.

I started getting heavier periods about 2 years ago but in the past year they got progressively worse, heavier and more painful. By October I was basically hemorrhaging for two days, same in November and after December's period, I ended up in the ER, received 2 units of packed red blood cells and was told I absolutely needed to do something before my next period. I met with three doctors; the first for an open abdominal myomectomy, the second for a hysterectomy and the third for UAE. MRI in May had shown I have endometriosis, adenomyosis and several fibroids, a 4.5 cm submucosal in the lower part of the uterus and two 2.0 cm subserosal. My gynocologist believed that the submucosal fibroid was the one causing all my problems. Of course, the two surgeons believed only their procedure would work and the IR was confident that UAE was the way to go. Remember, this is a business. I really, really didn't want to have a hysterectomy and my doctor was very sympathetic to my feelings. She recommended we try UAE.

I had the procedure performed the first day of my next period, Jan 9. It stopped the bleeding. The procedure itself was easy but it was painful afterward. I was treated with IV pain meds by they made me nauseous. Couldn't decide which was worse but it lasted less than 24 hrs. Spent the night in the hospital, sent home with toradol and percocet. My worst symptoms were stomach pains from the toradol (switched to ibuprofen) and constipation from the narcotics. But I felt pretty normal less than a week after the procedure.

Right before my next period I developed an unpleasant odor and the doctor (gyno) put me on Flagyl for 10 days. My period was painful but light. When I started my second period, the smell of the blood was terrible. I mean, really foul! I called the IR and his PA said that wasn't unusual (I had no fever or pain). The next day it was so bad I just couldn't accept that this was normal. Called my doctor and when she saw me later that day she could see the dead fibroid was prolapsed through my cervix. Ew! She tried for a while to coax it out but ended up removing the exposed bits and putting me on Cipro and Flagyl to treat the infection I obviously had. We waited a week for the fibroid to expel but it didn't so she removed it via hysteroscopic D&C. The procedure went well and after a week I felt great. I had brown discharge for about two weeks.

I'm posting my experience because my IR told me I had almost no chance of expelling the fibroid. The literature says the risk is about 5% but they include ALL UAE patients. It's really about 30% for submucosal fibroids. The risk of infection is very real and serious when there is necrotic tissue in the uterine cavity because it's not always sterile in there. (I read a paper about two women who got bad infections and needed hysterectomies when they had endometrial biopsies performed months after UAE. They had submucosal fibroids and the biopsy introduced bacteria into the uterus).

I'm not trying to scare anyone into not having UAE. Instead, I'm hoping to raise awareness of the risks associated with UAE for submucosal fibroids so that you can be proactive and have the success I did. I am very, very pleased with my results and so happy to retain my organs. I don't have heavy periods anymore and I feel great. In fact, I didn't realize how lousy that stupid fibroid was making me feel for the past year until now. I hope this helps anyone trying to make this decision.