New Options for Eliminating Fibroids

If you suffer from uterine fibroids, or benign tumors in the uterus, you’re not alone. As many as 80 percent of women have uterine fibroids, according to estimates from the National Uterine Fibroids Foundation (www.nuff.org). Fortunately, there are a variety of surgical and non-surgical options available for treating fibroids, including myomectomy (surgical removal of fibroids), hysterectomy (surgery to remove the uterus), uterine fibroid embolization (considered experimental by some doctors), cryomyolysis (a procedure that uses extremely cold temperatures), myolysis (use of lasers), and high-frequency focused ultrasound.

The last of these options, which employs high doses of focused ultrasound waves to remove fibroids, has caught the attention of many medical experts in the United States. The procedure is now being offered in 15 states at prestigious hospitals such as Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) the University of California at San Diego Medical Center (La Jolla, CA) the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) and the Weill Medical College of Cornell University (New York, NY).

"Up until now, treating fibroids often meant major surgery to remove the uterus or using hormonal treatments, which both have their risks and complications," explains George A. Holland, M.D., director of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts. "Often, too, a patient requires six to eight weeks to fully recuperate and complains of aches and pains from the surgery." Understandably, many patients are wary of surgery, and this is where the focused ultrasound technique comes in. Patients who have had the procedure say it can eliminate fibroids in a single treatment, getting you home and back to work quickly.

Using an MRI machine, doctors are able to see inside your body, locate your fibroid, and remove it without an incision—all in about three hours. Here's how it works: while you lie in or on the MRI machine, the device pinpoints the fibroid in your uterus and a high intensity, focused sound wave the size of a pea repeatedly heats and destroys the fibroid. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fast-tracked its approval of this new technique because clinical studies were overwhelmingly positive and complications were rare and minor.

Patient Marianne Dubresson, who had the surgery a few years ago, recalls her positive experience. "I was so comfortable during the procedure that all I could say was, 'Is it over already?’” Her only side effects were some mild cramps, which were easily calmed with over-the-counter pain relievers. A week later, she led a women's adventure trip to Costa Rica, hiking 25 miles of rugged trails, rappelling down waterfalls, bodysurfing, and horseback riding. "The whole time [during the trip] I felt 120 percent—as though nothing had happened," she recalls. "If other fibroids happen to grow, I’ll get the procedure again in a second.”

For more information on fibroid treatments, consult your gynecologist.

Editor's note: There are risks and tradeoffs in any medical procedure and not everyone is an appropriate candidate. Results of any given treatment will vary, as will side effects and/or complications.