One out of every two women has uterine fibroids

An estimated 600,000 hysterectomies (removal of uterus) are performed in the US annually

A uterine fibroid is the most common tumor of a woman’s uterus. It is also widely known as myoma. It is a disease which is observed in women with menstruation. It is because in most of the cases the tumor is dependent from the hormones. So in menopause (when the menstruation cycle stops) when there are not ovarian hormones myoma can decrease, sometimes even drastically, its size.
Until now medicine can not answer why a certain woman has myoma and another – does not. It is clear that there is heredity link – it is often noticed that if a mother has the disease, her daughter or sister is very likely to have it too. But this is not an absolute rule. The diagnosis can be placed at prophylactic examination or after health problems and complains of the patient.
In general, uterine fibroids seldom require treatment. Medical therapy and surgical procedures can shrink or remove fibroids if you have discomfort or troublesome symptoms.
The only 100% remedy is the operative removal of the uterus. However, in many cases this is not necessary. An estimated 600,000 hysterectomies (removal of uterus) are performed in the US annually, and at least one-third of these procedures are for fibroids.
Another, gaining popularity method is the embolization of uterine arteries. With this method a special probe is inserted in the blood vessels of the patient. This probe has to reach the artery that “feeds” the fibroids. A special substance is injected in this artery in order to make it clog. In this way the “feeding” stops and the fibroids dyes.
Another, even newer method is destroying the tumor with focused ultrasound. There are also medicaments which can “shrink” the sizes of the tumor. They cause artificial menopause, decreasing drastically the hormones.