Symptom-free but fast-growing fibroids?

Thanks for all the info. As someone said, may gray area IS quite large...

Here are just 2 miscellaneous tidbits that I've gleaned:

1) The female radiologist (M.D.) who performed my first songram several years ago, when I learned I had fibroids but they weren't even large enough that I'd known they were there) had one bit of unsolicited advice, "If it comes to the point when you need to do something, don't let anyone talk you into a myomectomy. Just get a hysterctomy."

For whatever reason, there seems to be a pronounced bias in the medical community, even amongst femle physicians, against myomectomy (as well as against UAE).

2) Two friends of mine had hysterectomies (they had HEAVY bleeding). Both kept their ovaries, and neither have, in the subsequent 2 and 5 years, gone into menopause yet. They are both in their early fifties.

Both say it was the best thing they ever did, for what it's worth.

Hi Liz --

I am brand new to this site -- just joined a few minutes ago in fact :-).

Your situation sounds very similar to mine. I am (almost) 40, child-free and have several fast growing fibroids. I had a myomectomy in December 1996 and had two large fibroids (head of cauliflower size) removed and several smaller fibroids. I felt great for years, but this last year has been very difficult.

I started having longer periods which lead to non-stop bleeding. In June of this year, I had a D&C due to a prolapsed fibroid in my uterus. My doctor recommended a hysterectomy, but I told her that I emotionally was not ready to make this decision.

It's been six months of relief, but the bleeding has again started. My last appointment indicated my uterus was the size of a 12 week pregnancy, and that was back in August.

I think I'm ready to make the decision to have a hysterectomy and leave my ovaries. I'm so tired of the bleeding and the anemia.

I've researched UAE, but I too have too many fibroids to make this procedure worthwhile. I have a pre-operative appointment scheduled on January 16 to make a final decision on hysterectomy or UAE.

As far as hysterectomy, I have many questions about weight gain, sexual side-effects, body changes and all the research I've done has left me more confused and undecided. Some say avoid a hysterectomy at all costs and others say that my circumstances warrant the surgery.

I have only one friend who has had a hysterectomy, and she strongly suggests I go for it. She's experienced the discomfort and inconveniences that I've been going through for so long and tells me that I'll feel so much better once it's through. I just don't know what's really right for me.

I guess I just wanted to write because I feel I connected with you and your situation. I wish you luck and hope you'll have an easier time making the decision that's right for you.

Good luck and good health!

Hi Liz, I'm with Maralyn on this and, if it was me, would say no to surgery unless you've got symptoms that are impeding your lifestyle (it goes without saying that you should continue to have regular checkups to monitor their growth). I had an LAVH 8 weeks ago and, like your friends, would say that it's the best thing I've ever done (and I'm only 31) but that's because I was living with constant bleeding, flooding and severe anaemia bordering on heart failure. After surgery sex is fantastic but again, I had zero sex drive beforehand due to the impact my fibroids were having on my body. If you're fibroids are asymptomatic I'd say that hysterectomy would have a negative effect on your body if anything.

I'm a feminist too and was devastated when I learned that hysterectomy was on the cards a year ago. I can remember coming home from the sonographer's and just looking at my mother in stunned silence thinking "my periods are going to end before yours do" then I showed her the report and she cried with me.

As for myomectomy - the length of procedure as well as the fact that the fibroids will eventually grow back (sometimes within a 6 month period) makes hysterectomy the safer option and is probably why many medicos will tell you not to bother with it. I think in someone who has only a small number of smallish fibroids myomectomy would be the way to go but for me it wasn't an option.

I didn't want to give in to the patriarchal medical thing either but in the end I washed my hands of that battle and saw the situation more as an empowering decision to take back my life rather than go down with the ship so to speak

As I said previously, if you don't have any symptoms, don't go for the op, but if you do end up experiencing the less joyful side to fibroids and need the op, don't think of it as a defeat or mutilating experience. I'm more able to uphold my feminist ideals now that I'm healthy - my uterus had a good run, it saw me into womanhood without a hitch, housed three babies and kept me healthy for the first 27 yrs of my life. However, my uterus became ill (I had a traumatic forceps delivery with my second child which may have started the fibroid ball rolling as no-one else in my family has had them), this in turn made many other things in my body start to fail and eventually it had to go.

Good luck and I hope your fibroids continue to behave

regards
Xaviera