Finding out you have uterine fibroids can be scary. Learning that you need surgery to remove them can feel even scarier. You might envision an invasive surgery, a large scar, and a long, painful recovery.
But if you’re among the one in four women with fibroids who experience painful or uncomfortable symptoms, leaving your uterine fibroids untreated is not an option.
Fibroid treatment without major surgery
How would you feel if you be get fibroid symptom relief without the invasive incision and long recovery time? How would you feel if you could it in a pristine outpatient facility and leave the same day with nothing more than a band aid on the incision site?
Uterine fibroid embolization – a minimally-invasive procedure
For thousands of women suffering from fibroid pain, this type of nonsurgical cure for fibroids is possible. Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), is a treatment uses real-time imaging to see and eliminate the fibroids without cutting you open.
How uterine fibroid embolization works
A specialist doctor called an interventional radiologist makes tiny incision made in your wrist or your groin. The incision is just big enough to allow a long, very thin catheter tube inside one of your arteries. Have you ever accidentally cut yourself while working in the kitchen? It is likely that your wound was more serious than is the incision used during a UFE procedure.
Once the catheter is inserted, an X-Ray and the use of contrast dye provides an image of the arteries in your body. The interventional radiologist guides the catheter through the roadmap of your arteries to your uterus. There, the doctor can see the arteries supplying blood to the fibroids.
The doctor then releases medically-safe particles called embolics into the arteries that supply blood to your fibroids. These embolics act like roadblocks that stop the passage of blood to the fibroid. Cutting off the blood supply shrinks the fibroid and it dissolves.
Read more specifics of the UFE procedure here.
The benefits and advantages of UFE
The benefits of UFE compared to surgery for uterine fibroids are clear. First, UFE relieves fibroid symptoms by shrinking the fibroids.
But UFE has advantages over major surgeries.
The uterine fibroid embolization procedure doesn’t require a major incision. UFE typically results in less blood loss than do the major surgeries for uterine fibroids (hysterectomy or myomectomy) and hardly ever requires blood transfusions. In addition, the minimally-invasive procedure has a much quicker recovery time than major surgery.
One advantage of UFE over a hysterectomy is for women who would like to have children. UFE leaves the uterus intact.
Of course, each woman’s case is individual and there are many factors to take into account when considering and choosing proper medical treatment. Therefore, it’s important to know the options and compare the various fibroid treatments. Decide what’s important to you when you consider the advantages and disadvantages of each procedure.
Uterine fibroid embolization success rate
Perhaps most compelling, the long term success of UFE is similar to that of a myomectomy, a far more invasive surgical procedure with much longer recovery time.
According to the combined results of major studies of UFE, the average success rate for the procedure is approximately 90%. After five years, approximately 80% of patients are asymptomatic. In other words, in 4 out of 5 patients, it is not necessary to have a hysterectomy or other treatment for uterine fibroids.
And if all of these advantages were not enough, UFE recovery is much faster than is the surgical option and comes with fewer complications.
Enjoying many of the benefits of fibroid surgery without many of the downsides might seem too good to be true. But just ask any of the thousands of women who have successfully undergone the procedure: Experiencing symptom relief, shorter recovery time, minimal UFE side effects, and a quick return to normal activities is not only possible but happening every single day to women just like you.
Viva Eve – Experts in UFE
Do you suffer from uterine fibroids? Are you looking for a treatment that doesn’t require major surgery? The doctors at Viva Eve have years of experience in the UFE treatment for uterine fibroids.
What’s more, at Viva Eve we are committed to providing high-quality, personalized care for each and every patient we see. We will partner with you to diagnose your condition and determine the best way to treat your problematic symptoms.
Note that UFE is also an effective treatment for adenomyosis.
Sources for information referenced in this post
- Islam, M., Segars, J., Castellucci, M., & Ciarmela, P. (2017). Dietary phytochemicals for possible preventive and therapeutic option of uterine fibroids: Signaling pathways as target. Pharmacological Reports
- Gonsalves, C. (2008). Uterine artery embolization for treatment of symptomatic fibroids. Seminars in Interventional Radiology
- Spies, J. (2016). Current role of uterine artery embolization in the management of uterine fibroids, Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Ravina, J., Herbreteau, D., Ciraru-Vigneron, N, et al. (1995). Arterial embolisation to treat uterine myomata. Lancet, 346(8976): 671-672.
- Memtsa, M., & Homer, H. (2012). Complications associated with uterine artery embolisation for fibroids, Obstetrics and Gynecology International
