Ayurvedic Medicine for Fibroids
Cleanse your blood. Ayurvedic medicine views fibroids as raktaja gulma-that is, tumors resulting from the impurity of your blood. How your fibroids are treated depends on your constitutional type, or dosha, explains Alakananda Devi, M.B., of Boulder, Colorado. In general, Dr. Devi advises patients with fibroids to exercise more and to reduce their intakes of dietary fat and alcohol. Dr. Devi also prescribes several Ayurvedic herbs, including chitrak and ashoka. Chitrak helps eliminate tumors, while ashoka relaxes the uterus, reduces menstrual flow, and shrinks fibroids.
Medical Measures
“In general, if your fibroids are not causing much discomfort, you might decide to just live with them until menopause shrinks them naturally,” Dr. Simons says. “If you have heavy periods, you can take iron supplements to reduce your risk of iron-deficiency anemia.”
For more troublesome fibroids, mainstream medicine offers two treatment options: drugs and surgery. Drug therapy aims to suppress estrogen, which makes fibroids grow. Two of the most commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals are leuprolide (Lupron) and nafarelin (Synarel). Both reduce estrogen by stimulating the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone, or GnRH.
Surgery is usually reserved for the most severe fibroids. The most conservative procedure, called myomectomy, removes just the fibroids and leaves your uterus intact. But myomectomy may not be possible if you have lots of fibroids or if they’re hard to reach.
The other, more radical surgical procedure is hysterectomy. Fibroids are the reason for about one-third of the 550,000 hysterectomies performed in the United States each year.
With a hysterectomy, there’s no chance of fibroids coming back, because your uterus is gone. If your ovaries are also removed, you may notice a drop in your sex drive afterward. That’s because the ovaries manufacture androgens, the hormones that fuel a woman’s libido. Taking supplemental androgens can correct this problem.
Hysterectomy is major surgery and should only be considered as a last resort. Before agreeing to it, you need to carefully weigh its benefits and risks in consultation with your doctor. Consider all of your treatment options and get several opinions, so you can make an informed decision.
Red Flags
Both oral contraceptives and hormone-replacement therapy (HRT), which some mainstream M.D.’s prescribe for women in or past menopause, contain estrogen. The amount of the hormone is low enough that it shouldn’t stimulate the growth of fibroids. Still, you’d be wise to discuss the issue with your doctor before starting a prescription for oral contraceptives or HRT.
If you’ve already been diagnosed with fibroids and you experience sudden sharp pelvic pain, call your doctor right away. This may be a sign that one of your fibroids has become twisted, cutting off its own blood supply. A strangled fibroid is serious and potentially life-threatening. You may need immediate surgery to remove it.