Had my ultrasound/sonohist today to see what's been going on with my fibroids. Results: one shrunk a lot, one shrunk a little, one stayed the same, one grew a lot and one grew slightly
Sounds like a wash, but actually it’s not as the one that shrunk a lot was one of the larger ones and is in a particularly bad place so shrinking it is especially valuable.
The two my gyn is most concerned about are the ones that are impinging into the cavity
Of those, one is the posterior which shrunk from 4.8 in May (5.0 in December) to 3.2 -- so that’s 33% shrinkage since May, and 36% shrinkage since December. This is helpful since it makes more room in the cavity
The other one impinging into the cavity is the submucosal, which grew slightly from 2.5 to 2.7 (8%)
Then the other three are ones that are outside the uterus or inside the muscle:
A subserosal that was unchanged from May at 5.2 (was 5.7 in December)
A second subserosal that shrank from 3.1 in May to 2.8 (9.7% decrease)
A "mid" one that increased from 2.5 in May to 3.5 (40%)
(By the way, the reason I only have stats on two of them for December is because at that time my uterus was so distorted that my gyn didn't bother trying to measure all of them. Only in May when things were looking better did she start to attempt to map and measure beyond the two biggest ones.)
How is it that the shrinkage/growth for each fibroid is so different? My gyn had two explanations. First, the ultrasounds are rather murky and it’s difficult to measure easily or accurately and sometimes when they are close it’s hard to distinguish them from each other to tell where one starts and one ends. Second, she said “each one can have a different DNA composition so they can respond to different things.” For example, some fibroids might be more or less hormone responsive than others, and some might respond to certain treatments while others don’t. Sounds like that’s what is going on here….
16 comments:
I think when you are doing all you can to reduce the fibroids, the ultrascan always seems disppionting. But they haven't got any bigger and you should focus on positive.
I have been doing acupuncuture, taking Agnus castus and eating a better diet for my fibroids for the last few months and have my hopsital appointment next week. I'm from England and you have to ask for an ultrascan which I am scared of asking for because I did not take norestherone tablets they prescribed and instead did alternate treatment. Not sure how they going take it.
Love your blog, took me ages to find on the search engine but now I know where you, I will check in on it more.
Thanks so much for the encouragement. You're right I need to focus on the positive! Glad you are enjoying the blog.
Good luck with the ultrasound, and let us know how it goes. Am curious how the agnus castus (vitex) has been helping you, I had used it for awhile and not so sure it helped.
I love your blog and think you are doing great. You should be proud of your accomplishments.
I just had an ultrasound today and my fibroid grew by 1cm this year. I already cut out processed soy from my already low-fat diet, but I am now incorporating good things like flaxseed and even more nuts and veggies.
Keep up the good work. :)
Thanks!
Sorry to hear about your fibroid growing but hopefully you can stop it in its tracks with the changes you are making!
Thanks!
Sorry to hear about your fibroid growing but hopefully you can stop it in its tracks with the changes you are making!
I love your blog too. It is great what you are doing! :)
I have a question for you. How do you solve the problem of the bleeding? I have submucosal fibroid and heavy bleedings and I don't know how to reduce it.
Thank you for your reply.
Re: Agnus Castus (vitex)
It has been great. I started using it last May after reading an article in the English Times Newspaper. My period has gone from a 14-21 day period to a 7 day period and there has been less clots, flooding, soiling of clothes and less sanitary towels being used each month. I don't even get PMT anymore and even managed to have a period without using medication last month (been on tranxemic acid tablets for 3 years). Doing acupuncture helps.
I felt its effect almost immediately. It is a hormonal regulator and it does not agree with everyone.
With the Fibroids, you have to find what works for you. Right now this is working so don't need to change anything. But have put pick up plenty of ideas from your blog if I need to.
I hope this helps.
That's great information. Wow, sounds like the Vitex has really worked for you! I agree, everyone with fibroids has to find out what works for them. My acupuncturist uses a special instrument to assess what is the best match for me, which I have really been liking, will write a post on it soon!
Thanks to anonymous on September 18th, sorry I missed moderating your comment till now.
About the bleeding. One thing that helped me a lot right after I started it was the blackstrap molasses. The various Chinese herbs and the acupuncture seem to have helped too.
A warning, if you are having trouble with a lot of bleeding, avoid taking enzymes (serraptase, protease, nattokinase) as they thin your blood and make bleeding much messier. (I took a flight to Tokyo this summer while I was taking those and on the heaviest day of my flow, and wasn't prepared for how bad it would be! Yikes!)
Re: Ultrascan
You asked to be kept up to date about my ultrascan. I had an appointment with my local hosiptal as a follow up to a previous appointment. I spoke to the doctor and told her that my symptons had been alievated by doing the alternate treatment and she was happy and did not mind that I had not taken the medication prescribed. Very relieved! I did ask for ultrascan but she said that as all the symptoms had been reduced, I didn't need one. I think I knew they were going to say this.
In England we have a completely different health system to yourself in the US and most people are on the national health system (NHS). Therefore lots of things are done to save cost. When I read your blog and comments from
your readers, I can't believe how easy it is for you to access health services such scans and seeing more than one doctor etc.
In my primary care trust (health system are broke into regions), the options are limited by what the doctors will give you, it not really a choice. It hormonal treatment then hystrectomy. Other options are not available.
I don't think my fibroid has gone away but I think it has gone back 2 stages. I will carry on with the acupuncture as I'm not ready to let go and will look to make other dietary changes and adding supplements. Ever heard of Barlean Women Essential Liquid? It produced in the US and suppose to be one of the best women's supplement.
Will keep checking in to see how you are getting on. Thanks for all the tips.
Thanks so much for the update and glad that your symptoms have been reduced so much. "back 2 stages" sounds great!
So interesting the contrasts in the health system. In the U.S., no doctor would forgo a scheduled scan, for fear of being sued if something cropped up later that they should have detected. And interesting about the lower degree of doctor access. As you know, health care is a big topic of debate in the U.S., I think it would be hard for most Americans to adjust to a U.K.-style system.I hadn't heard of the Barlean Women Essentials but just looked it up and it sounds like it's similar to the oils I am taking except it also has soy isoflavones.
Best wishes as you keep working on shrinking your fibroids!
hi love your site. I've been following it for some time now. I was just wondering if you've had a MRI scan. I discovered I had a further 6 fibroids than my ultrascan had shown.
(^0^)V
Thanks Carmelina, glad you are enjoying the site. No, haven't had an MRI, mainly due to the expense. I do hear they are more accurate than ultrasound...
hi thanks for your quick response. Just to let you know i'm in the UK so when I opted for embolization (1 of my fibroids is over 10cm so I don't think the natural method will help shrink that one- even though i am trying my best to continue with the fibroid diet and find it really helps with a lot of the symptoms)I was referred to a consultant and had an MRI scan. I was quite surprised I had a further 6 fibroids ranging in size from 1cm to 4cm since i'd had 2 ultrasounds done quite recently. It is expensive though - if i'd gone private it would be around £800!
Yikes, that's expensive. My last ultrasound was $800 so can only imagine what an MRI would be here!
I was looking back at this and noticed the comments by Carmelina -- you were so right, the MRI showed more fibroids, and bigger! Ugh!
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