Ladies who have or had uterine fibroids.?

Can you please explain how they affect you and the discomfort effects they cause.A GF has been diagnosed with them .She says they effect her in every way.Similar to urine infection.Bowels feel affected and her mind plays up.Can anyone please help me out to understand what she is going through.Thanking you all

generally, uterine fibroids cause your gf a lot of lower abdomen pain and discomfort, especially around her period. they are physically a small, non-cancerous mass of tissue on a uterus. if the size is rather large, you can actually feel the masses if you press on her stomach. there are four (?) different types, which you can look up. these masses push up against other organs in your lower stomach area, like your uterus and bladder and these little things make you feel like you're pregnant.

for me, fibroids cause me a lot of lower stomach cramping and pain throughout the month. also, i have a lot of lower back pain and constipation from them. the lower back pain also causes problems if i stand for long periods of time. because of their size and location, sex is very painful for me as well, so don't be surprised if sometimes you have to stop. it also hurts when i orgasm. i have to urinate a lot (going to the bathroom about 8 times a day, if not more). I never really had extreme pms, but when i'm not feeling well, i get cranky. Another symptom is a swelling of the stomach. For me, i have the uterus the size of a 15 week pregnant woman and i look like it too. because of the size and number, i cannot get pregnant and i have had one miscarriage. i have met women who can get pregnant and carry the child to full term, and i have also met women who have had a premature child because of fibroids. it all depends on several factors. this also makes the problem somewhat psychological because a woman can feel inadequate if she cannot bear children.

needless to say, menstruation is a horrible time of the month for your gf because of the menses and heavy bleeding. she is probably very tired during that time of the month.

the good news is that your gf has a lot of options available to her now to help control the fibroids. if she has just been diagnosed, i would recommend taking 800 mg of ibuprofen a day and it helps tremendously. of course, this cannot be a long term solution to the problem because you'll destroy your stomach. Another thing that helps is exercise and, for me, pilates. pilates (and perhaps yoga) will help to relieve the menses. She should also consider eating non-hormone beef and dairy products. luckily today, this is possible and most grocery stores carry these products.

if she's considering medical treatment, acupuncture has helped as well. not only will it relieve the back problems, but the size of my fibroids has reduced by 1 cm (Ooo, i know, but it's still something). After that, i would consider options such as uterine fibroid embolyzation and myomectomy. if she's lucky, the myomectomy can be performed laproscopically and will require very little hospitalization and down time. i would only recommend a hysterectomy if it's absolutely necessary. they are coming out with new treatments all the time and i would only take out the uterus if you've explored all other options. there are also hormone shots that she can take. DO NOT TAKE THESE! lupron shots put your body into temporary menopause to reduce the size. once you're off of them, the fibroids grow back.

this is probably more info than you wanted to know, but i hope it helps.

i had fibroids and they affected my periods, they were very painful and i was really moody and cried for no reason. Sometimes a woman doesn't even know she has them until after a miscarriage if all other tests were OK.

i had mine removed with a hysteroscopy which is not painful after except for a little pain in the abdomen, but that goes away within a few days.

After the operation all was fine.