For Women Living With Uterine Fibroids, a Non-surgical Option Is Available

Fibroids are benign (non-cancerous) growths in and around the uterus. They can be smaller than a pea or larger than a grapefruit. There can be one or many. They may cause no symptoms at all, or the symptoms can be so severe that a woman needs to plan her entire life around her menstrual cycle.

When fibroid symptoms cause discomfort, pain and heavy bleeding, many women are told that a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) or myomectomy (surgical removal of fibroids) are her only options. Today, there is another, effective option for treating fibroids that requires no surgery, and lets a woman keep her uterus. It’s called uterine fibroid embolization or UFE.

UFE is safe, FDA-approved and covered by most insurance plans. It requires no hospitalization, no general anesthesia, no lengthy recovery and no scarring. The results are long-lasting, and women who have the procedure report a high level of satisfaction and a significant improvement in their quality of life, even over the long term.¹¯²

UFE is performed by a specially trained doctor known as an interventional radiologist. This doctor uses imaging to guide a catheter through the body until it reaches the uterine artery. Tiny particles are then injected into the blood vessels that feed the fibroid. These particles become lodged in the smaller vessels, which deprives the fibroid of oxygenated blood, causing it to shrink and symptoms to eventually disappear. Unlike myomectomy, the likelihood of fibroids returning is very low.

There are many instances where a hysterectomy or myomectomy is the right course of treatment for a patient, but not typically in the case of uterine fibroids. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) now recommends UFE as a viable treatment for uterine fibroids.

To find out if UFE is right for you, please call 252-754-5249 to schedule a consultation with one of our interventional radiologists.

References:

1. Smith WJ, Upton E, Shuster EJ, Klein AJ, Schwartz ML. Patient satisfaction and disease specific quality of life after uterine artery embolization. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2004;190(6):1697–1703. 
2. Scheurig-Muenkler C, Koesters C, Powerski MJ, Grieser C, Froeling V, Kroencke TJ. Clinical long-term outcome after uterine artery embolization: sustained symptom control and improvement of quality of life. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2013;24(6):765–771