Managing Fibroids

Have you suffered with fibroids?

You're not alone. In fact, fibroids are the most common type of tumour and it's estimated that around 75% of women will have them at some point before they reach the age of 50, and they can grow up to 30cm or more in diameter!

They tend to be asymptomatic, but when symptoms do occur, they tend to be painful or heavy periods, even anaemia from the bleeding.

So what is the solution?

Approximately half of the women experiencing these seems will have surgical interventions with around 80-90% of those ending up with a full hysterectomy, with only 5% receiving a myomectomy (removal of the fibroids) and less than 4% recieving an endometrial ablation (removal or destruction of the endometrium).

Although a hysterectomy is considered to be a generally safe operation, obviously you can't have kids any more, and complications do occur in a significant proportion of patients. Around 40% will develop post operative fever, 20% will have post operative infections, others will get deep vein thrombosis, intra-operative bleeding, urinary tract injuries (5%), gastrointestinal injuries and femoral or sciatic neuropathy.

As an alternative to surgery, you may be offered drugs to manage the size of the fibroids, and skew your hormones to prevent growth. This can offer some relief to patients, but the drugs don't come without side effects, including hot flushes and bone loss, which limits treatment to a maximum of 6 months.

So what else can be done?

One study shows that women who exercised 7 hours a week (or one hour a day) were significantly less likely to have fibroids than those who did less than 20 minutes a day - but it's never been tested whether increasing exercise would treat those who already had fibroids. It's worth bearing in mind though.

Some asian herbal remedies have been tested and did show a little promise (although not hugely helpful) but the main problem with these is that the majority (75%) were found to contain heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead; and not just trace amounts either. Often they were found to have huge concentrations exceeding 74% of the public health guidelines for the prevention of illness.

What about diet?

Excessive consumption of beef and ham have been linked to an increase in fibroid formation, whilst a high intake of green vegetables has been shown to have a protective effect. No surprises there.

Oestrogen based cancers are often increased when people consume large amounts of beef and ham, particularly when it's sourced from a farming industry that uses hormones to fatten up the animal before it's slaughtered. It makes sense that something which triggers oestrogen responsive malignant tumours, like cancer, would also trigger oestrogen responsive benign tumours, like fibroids.

In fact, vegetarian women only have 60-80% of the fibroid and oestrogen responsive cancer rates that eat eating women do. The New England Journal of Medicine concluded that "vegetarian women have an increased fecal output, which leads to increased fecal excretion of oestrogen and a decreased plasma concentration of oestrogen". In fact, they noted that vegetarian women pooped more than double the weight of an omnivorous person (154g vs 58g per 24 hours period). It's interesting that in my own experience, clients who have complained of painful periods and fibroids have frequently also asked me about natural laxatives and complained about suffering with constipation.

So researchers put the theory to the test, and guess what? When women were fed a diet containing more fibre and whole, natural vegetables (rather than processed grains and junk food diets) their blood serum levels of oestrogen reduced, suggesting that a change in diet can have a protective effect.

My favourite recommendations for those wishing to reduce oestrogen levels are fresh fruits, cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens, cabbages and apples. You could also consider taking a fibre supplement.

Other factors that can affect your hormones include endocrine disrupting sweeteners in 'zero calorie' sweets and sodas, pollutants and pesticides from non-organic foods, badly farmed meats that contain hormones, cleaning products... etc...

If you're serious about balancing your hormones and reducing your risk, you may also want to look into phytoestrogen supplements and a holistic lifestyle approach to your health. I'd love to work with you on that, so book an appointment!