my story -- me and my fibroids

I'm declaring war on my fibroids, and invite all of you to join me in my quest. My goal is to get rid of them naturally, so that I can avoid surgery.

In this first post I will share a bit about me and my fibroids, as background to what I am going to be posting to this blog.

I'm 43 and after many years living a life not unlike a character from Sex and the City (except with a lot less sex in my case!) I have finally met Prince Charming and recently we have been talking about the M word.

I was first diagnosed with my fibroids nearly 4 years ago. Since then I have tried various different natural/alternative techniques, but in hindsight the people I was working with were not always the most qualified and in one case may have done more harm than good. Also I was busy with a lot of other things, most notably my job as a globe-trotting consultant and desperately trying to locate Prince Charming. Getting rid of my fibroids was frankly not my first priority.

I recently went to a new gynecologist who asked me about my personal plans and I told her that things are moving in a positive direction with my boyfriend and that even though I'm no longer a spring chicken, I would like to try to have children. She said, ok then, let's check out how you look on the fertility front. She first checked my estradiol and FSH, which came back excellent especially for my age.

Then she did an ultrasound on my fibroids, and that was the bad news. There are three. One is 5 cm and outside the uterus, large but not such a problem. Then there is a 5 cm one on the inside of the uterus, and a smaller one opposite it. My uterus is distorted and the fibroids are taking up a lot of the interior surface area. Their position is a big problem from two perspectives. First, right now it would be difficult for an embryo to implant itself on the wall because the fibroids are in the way, and second it would be hard for it to thrive because it wouldn't be able to get enough blood flow and there isn't enough room in there either. And also where they are means that they are not amenable to surgery, because if they were cut out there wouldn't be much uterus left.

My gynecologist suggested embolization, and I looked into it but there are a lot of risks if you are thinking you still might want to have kids. And besides surgery is scary. At the same time, I found a lot on the web about alternative ways to shrink fibroids. In particular, this study (http://www.healing-arts.org/mehl-madrona/mmfibroids.htm) offers some compelling proof that alternative approaches can work.

So I've decided to make a really big push, an all-out attack on the fibroids. It's time for them to go. And the things I am going to try to get rid of them are going to help my life in other ways too that I've been needing -- reducing my stress, getting back in shape, losing weight, etc.

According to my research on the topic, there are many things that one can do. And I intend to try them, to the hilt! At first this all felt overwhelming and confusing, but now I feel like I have things sorted out and have a good battle plan. After putting all this effort into creating a plan, it seems a shame to have it only benefit myself. So thought I would write this blog to share what I have learned and am learning with others. Please cheer me on in my quest to get rid of these damn things. And hopefully you will find some information that will be helpful to you!