September 16, 2005

Sometimes I wonder if folks are reading, so it came as a complete surprise when I saw that Tracy (the editor of Health Diaries) said that my page was selected for the honor of Reader's Choice!

Of course, hearing that makes me want to do a better job.

First, I focus a lot here on trying to help women realize the importance of their ovaries. But I think I've been remiss on introducing information about alternative therapies for uterine fibroids. After all, that's what brought me to this place in my life, and possibly brought you to this site.

So, look forward to more information about fibroid treatments and therapies as I find them and of course my continuing mission to help women get educated about their own bodies.

Is there something you'd like me to address? I'm hoping to do some special articles about recovery times, pros and cons of different procedures and therapies and touchstones about my progress.

Posted by Elizabeth M. at 6:52 PM | Comments (2)

I've heard about this therapy before. I even did a little research on it last year before my hyster. It was very new then and still only being tried out by a few groups, but it sounds promising.

The idea is that focused ultrasound is used to basically damage fibroid tumors thermally so that they shrivel up and die, or at least lose volume.

The doctors use an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imager) to guide the directed ultrasound to the right area of tissue in the uterus.

The report that I read late last year said that it's promising but at the moment they were saying the average reduction of fibroid volume is 13.5% ... I'm sorry, but if mine were the size of a grapefruit and an eggplant, that'd mean that they'd be reduced to a large orange and a smaller eggplant. (The largest fibroid was 11 cms, that means that its diameter after 6 months would be reduced to 9.5 cms, which is still kinda big.)

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great therapy and I'm glad their pursuing it. It's no-invasive (no cutting of the skin at all) and if women pursue treating their fibroids early this might be just the ticket ... after all, if you can reduce or at least stop the growth of a 6 cm fibroid, you can certainly keep from having your uterus removed to get rid of symptoms.

This along with embolization and myomectomy are improving so many women's lives and of course preserving their fertility and ovarian function.

When we respond positively and knowledgably about these stories to our doctors and friends, we're telling the medical establishment that resolving these health issues is important. If all women just accept hysterectomy and its risks and side effects as the status quo ... well, that's they way things will stay.

Link to: MRI guidance of focused ultrasound therapy of uterine fibroids: early results

Posted by Elizabeth M. at 7:37 PM

September 18, 2005

The previous entry I made about focused ultrasound treatments for fibroids has a story behind it.

Last week I got an email from a friend (one who was with me through the whole process). He sent me the link to the story about the newly developed treatment and then went on and on about how he wished that he or I knew about it last year and that it would have helped me.

Then he sent me another email a few hours later with a couple more links on the same subject.

Why he sent this to me (he doesn't know about this diary) is beyond me. It would be like me sending him an article about how getting regular maintenance for you car can keep it in good working order, since he'd just totaled his car as a result of an alignment problem that would have been caught if he took care of his car.

It's not just pouring salt on an open wound, it's opening it up again.

A lot of people believe that women go through the same five stages of grief when it comes to losing their uterus. I'm still in the bargaining stage, I guess. If I'd taken more interest in my own health, if I'd gone to my checkups and got my fibroids diagnosed more quickly I'd have more options.

In fact, I still had options, I had the option of myomectomy. I just didn't take it ... I didn't want to have another surgery later because I was convinced that my doctor couldn't possibly get them all. She said she wouldn't have removed them all. She said that I had a 50-50 chance that I'd be back in the same position in 5 to 10 years.

I wasn't brave enough, is what I tell myself. I wasn't willing to take the same recovery period for a myomectomy. I was only willing to give myself one recovery period for the rest of my life. I was scared and I took what I thought was the rational and safe way out. But in reality, I don't know that being without my uterus is safe. Sure, about 1/3 of all women end up with a hysterectomy, but having one at 38 is much less common. And for some reason the medical establishment has never bothered to actually study the effects of hysterectomy (just the uterus). And they really haven't explored the effects of oophorectomy.

Okay, maybe I'm still in that anger stage.

Posted by Elizabeth M. at 9:05 PM | Comments (4)

September 26, 2005

I saw an article over the weekend about left-handed women being at higher risk for pre-menopausal breast cancer.

Here's a link to the article - link.

This has nothing to do with hysterectomy or fibroids, however, I am a southpaw and I do have breasts.

I've read articles (probably hundreds in my lifetime) about left-handedness and its cause and one of the theories has to do with hormones the fetus is exposed to. I'm guessing that those same hormones that may cause the brain to develop favoring the right side of the brain (and left side of the body) might also make the breast tissue more succeptible to cancer.

The connection, though strong, doesn't really increase my risk that much, as pre-menopausal breast cancer is much less common than post-menopause (that's why we start getting our mammograms at age 40 - I'm due for mine next year).

I've never put much stock into anything about left-handed people being any better or worse at anything other than doing something with a particular hand. I don't think that lefties are any smarter than righties, nor more creative or articulate. I have noticed that I have a fair amount of left-handed friends. I did a count a few months back and found that 20-25% of my friends and associates are left-handed, where the general statistic is 10%.

My father is left-handed as was his mother. I don't think there's a gene that makes you lefty, but I think there's probably some sort of gene that controls hormone levels that might control whether or not a fetus becomes a lefty. However, my mother's side of the family has no left-handedness at all (as far as I know). So, I've succeeded in confusing myself, I have no idea how I became left-handed or not.

Posted by Elizabeth M. at 6:53 PM