Fibroids/alternative treatment?

[hey3]

I am a 34y/o F. I went to the physican just recently for heartburn. He did the poking around on the abdomen. He noted the mass in my abdomen. I assumed it was probably fibroids. He scheduled me for an ultrasound last week. Sure enough a mass probably fibroid in nature. It unfortunately has caused me more problems than heartburn. Pressure, bloating, pain, ligament pain. The nurse told me the overall size of the uterus is 7.5 X 9 X 13. They did not however tell me how many or how big. I was referred to a gyn. I haven't had the appointment yet. I dread this visit, as I have not ever had a pelvic exam (shame on me!). The problem I have is I don't have time to recover from a hysterectomy. I am a nursing student. I have 3 weeks off in December. It is causing and has for awhile much pain. I consulted with an office that does MRI guided ultrasound procedure that destroys the fibroids. If my fibroids are larger that 12cm I am not a candidate for this procedure. Insurance does not cover this procedure and it will cost between 8 and 14 thousand. Recovery time is 2 days. I have been researching the internet and came accross a product called Neprinol. Have you heard of this product? The product description can be found on www.enzymus.com. These pills have enzymes that "clean" extra fibrin out of the body. According to many women on several forums I have read, their fibroids have been shrunk. Is there any harm in trying something like this? I won't be out of school until May.  It would be very difficult if impossbile for me to be back on the floor taking care of patients after major surgery.

Do you have any suggestions? Most physicans don't really like their patients to try anything alternative. I don't have any other major health issues at this time. I have had a CBC, survey 20, CRP, RF, ANA, Sed rate, and a thyroid test all have been normal.

Thank you very much for the reply,
Amanda

[hey3]

Thank you for your reply. Fertility really isn't an issue. I don't and have never planned on having children. Bleeding is also not an issue. I don't have alot of bleeding. I could consider BCP but I have read that fibroid grow larger with BCP. The problem I have is with pressure and pain because of the size of the fibroid itself. After a rotation in the cath lab, I don't think that I would want to have embolization. Anyhow, thanks.

[John Kim, M.D.]

First you must determine whether you want to preserve your ability to get pregnant or not. If you do not want to get pregnant in the future then a hysterectomy is one option. If you want to preserve your fertility then there are other options for fibroid treatment. One is a myomectomy, a surgery either by abdominal incision or laparoscopy to remove just the fibroids. Another is uterine atery embolization, a procedure done in invertentional radiology where they try to block the blood supply to the uterus by small particles which shrink the fibroid (the long term effect on fertility is not clear with this procedure). Another is hormonal manipulation with birth control pills, or progestins like DepoProvera injections. Another approach which would not be as effective for you because you are so young is injections of GnRH agonists which temporarily shrink your fibroids by temporarily shutting off your female hormones, Yet another approach is Mirena IUD. This helps with any bleeding from fibroids but may not shrink them significantly.
The MRI guided procedure that you mention is the newest approach.
I do not recommend taking Neprinol.
Please see your gynecologist to do over your option. A helpful website for fibroids is the one from the Comprehensive Fibroid Center at UCSF:  http://www.ucsf.edu/fibroids/bg_treatment.html.
I wish you the best.