Thursday, February 5, 2009

status report / pregnancy the best cure for fibroids?

Had two appointments today, one an ultrasound with my gyn and then saw my acupuncturist.

The ultrasound showed that my fibroids are the same size they were as of the last ultrasound, in October.

Obviously I was disappointed that I didn't have further shrinking. I discussed this with my acupuncturist, who confirmed what I had been thinking. Since the fall, our #1 focus has been on gearing my body up for pregnancy, with fibroid management priority #2. Even if you look at the herbal formulas I have been taking, they address the fibroids kind of indirectly, but are not the bring-out-the-big-guns-hit-them-hard kind of herbs I had been doing this summer when I saw better shrinkage results.

The reason is, trying to bust up fibroids aggressively with heavy duty herbal firepower is just not compatible with trying to get pregnant. Given my age, we got to the point where we had to say "the fibroids are a lot better than they were in December 07, and while it would be nice if they were gone completely, they are small enough now that it's not unreasonable to pursue pregnancy." If I were younger, I would have preferred to take more time especially devoted to fibroid shrinking, but unfortunately at 44 I just don't have that luxury. I wish that I had known everything I do now about which herbs and other things to do to shrink fibroids when I was originally diagnosed with them -- which is why I am writing this blog to hopefully help others.

The good news is that all that my gyn has been doing to juice my body up for pregnancy has not caused the fibroids to grow.

My acupuncturist then told me that what she thinks is needed for fibroid shrinkage is to clear any remaining emotional issues that might be contributing to them. And indeed, that has been on my list to do some more work on -- lately I have been more focused on the diet, exercise, energetic/chakra work, and meditation. (Longtime readers of this blog may remember I did a lot of emotional related work a year ago, but time for that went by the wayside once I got engaged...now time to get back to that!) I have several tools that I am going to use to work on this, will share my progress with you.

My acupuncturist then told me she has had clients whose fibroids shrunk after they got pregnant. I asked her about this, because on the fibroid listserv I'm on I've read all sorts of stories of women whose fibroids grew wildly when they got pregnant. So I always thought that pregnancy made fibroids grow. My acupuncturist felt in part that's because of the fact that many pregnant women, in her words, "eat a lot of junk, like scarfing donuts." She also said that the women who she's worked with whose fibroids shrunk during pregancy had already done a lot of holistic work, and she continued working with them on the same issues during pregnancy. Also she said that some of the emotional issues women with fibroids have are related to pregnancy, and getting pregnant helps to resolve them.

Her closing comment was "I think pregnancy is the best cure for fibroids." A rather unorthodox view, but a hopeful one, so thought I would share it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think when you have been trying so hard to sort out your fibroids and trying to get pregnant at the same time, its disheartening to find out the results aren't what you expect. There is lot positivity in what you are doing - I bet you are a lot more healthier both physically and emotionally through this journey. Now is the time to keep you focus on the end goal!

I have been following your blog for quite some time and love the fact you've shared so much. I have incorporated some of what you are doing into my life and love the results I'm getting. My fibroid do not affect my lifestyle as much as they use to but they are there. Therefore I will always be looking at ways to shrink them.

Keep going!!

Fibroid Shrinker said...

Thanks so much for the positive words, I really appreciate it!

I agree I think I am a lot healthier physically and emotionally as a result of this journey. My relationship with my husband, although very good to begin with, has gotten better too I think (I have some really interesting stuff on this I'll be writing about soon...). All of which will make me a better mom!

I know with other difficult things I have done in my life (like learn to speak Japanese) that progress does not always move in a smooth progression -- that one might have a long time that feels like a plateau with no progress but if you just keep at it you can then get a big sudden jump forward. Perhaps this will be the case with my fibroids too.

So glad to hear that you are seeing results from some of the changes you have made, that's great!

Anonymous said...

In emergency purposes we must have to decide in the end because not all things happened we can handle. Time will come that we must have to sacrifice. Stick on what you have decided together with prayers.

Fibroid Shrinker said...

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I will be going for the op pretty soon as I wanted to get preggy too. I have a friend whose fibroid grew during pregnancy (this is the normal case), so it is no joke to hope that it will shrink when you get pregnant.

Fibroid Shrinker said...

If an operation is the option that works best for you, that's great. In my case I was told it wasn't a good option.
I too am rather skeptical about this idea of fibroids shrinking during pregnancy, but I'm just telling you what she said!

Anonymous said...

My fibriods grew when I was pregnant and were the reason I had a miscarriage. I have read about some woman who have been lucky enough to have their fibroids shrink during pregnancy but I guess it depends on the woman.

Good luck!

Fibroid Shrinker said...

So sorry to hear about your miscarriage.

So many things about fibroids seem to depend on the woman. It's very frustrating that nobody seems to know how fibroids really work.