Uterine Fibroids
If uterine fibroids disrupt your life, Reid Health offers minimally invasive care close to home. Connect with a skilled OB/GYN or women’s health provider today.
Advanced uterine fibroid treatment
Uterine fibroids are extremely common, with an estimated 20% to 80% of women developing them by age 50. Although some women with fibroids never experience symptoms, others develop pain, heavy menstrual cycles, and, potentially, infertility. Thankfully, uterine fibroids can be treated.
Reid Health OB/GYNs and women’s health providers can help women in East Central Indiana and West Central Ohio manage fibroids and related symptoms.
What are uterine fibroids?
Uterine fibroids are benign tumors in the muscle cells of your uterus. They can grow inside the uterine cavity or uterine tissue and on the outside of the uterus. Fibroids can be as small as a seed or as large as a grapefruit. The larger fibroids grow, the more discomfort they will cause. In very rare cases, fibroids can be cancerous.
How fibroids are diagnosed
Often, your OB/GYN or women’s health provider can detect fibroids during a pelvic exam. Your provider will confirm the diagnosis with an imaging test, such as an ultrasound or another procedure.
In some cases, your provider might perform a minimally invasive abdominal surgery called laparoscopy to see fibroids on the outside of your uterus.
Rick factors for uterine fibroids
Uterine fibroids are influenced by hormone levels and shrink with treatment or after menopause when estrogen and progesterone drop. Having children can lower the risk, but pregnancy hormones might cause growth. Risk factors include:
- Being over age 30
- A diet high in red meat and low in vegetables
- Ethnicity (Black women are at higher risk)
- Family history (having a mother who had uterine fibroids increases risk)
- Obesity
Nonsurgical treatment for uterine fibroids
If your fibroids cause no symptoms or only minor discomfort, you might not need treatment. However, you might benefit from medications to lessen bleeding and pain during your periods. If you have anemia, your provider might recommend an iron supplement as iron deficiency caused by blood loss is a common cause of anemia.
Hormonal birth control pills and, for some women, hormonal intrauterine devices can also help regulate periods and make bleeding less heavy.
Certain medications can stop the menstrual cycle. Your provider might prescribe these medications before surgery to shrink large fibroids.
Surgical treatment for uterine fibroids
Gynecologic surgery can help women with very painful uterine fibroids or those whose fibroids prevent them from getting pregnant. The surgery you need depends on your goals for pregnancy and the size, location, and number of uterine fibroids.
Our surgery teams offer many traditional and minimally invasive procedures to treat uterine fibroids. You might have one of the following, depending on whether you’d like to get pregnant.
- Myomectomy: During a myomectomy, the surgeon removes fibroids but not your uterus. A myomectomy can be minimally invasive and performed through your belly button (laparoscopy) or vagina (hysteroscopy). Some women might need an open myomectomy, which involves a large incision in the abdomen. You can still get pregnant after a myomectomy.
If pregnancy isn’t a concern, options for fibroid removal include:
- Endometrial ablation: In this outpatient procedure, the uterine lining is removed. Most women have no or very light menstrual bleeding afterwards.
- Hysterectomy: This surgery involves removing the entire uterus, the only permanent cure for fibroids. Reid offers robotic-assisted hysterectomies, performed through small incisions using the da Vinci® Surgical System.
- Uterine artery embolization: During this procedure, a surgeon injects small gel or plastic particles into blood vessels to hinder blood flow to shrink fibroids. Some women who have this procedure might need it repeated after several years.