Uterine Fibroid & NuvaRing

[enlitenurmind]

Hello Doctors and fellow fibroid strugglers. I'm 37 years old and have been struggling with a life changing posterior uterine fibroid that has been growing the past 3 years. It first started giving me pain at 3x3cm and now its 5x6cm. I have had 2 Gyn Drs tell me to leave it alone unless I had severe pain. I have dealt with severe back pain, severe bloating, lower pelvic pain traveling down to my knee and sometimes pain to the point of nausea and keeling over in bed until the Advil kicked in. I'm still an unmarried single student and don't have plans for marriage for another 2 years or so. I'm worried how this fibroid and my age will affect my fertility. I've been reading and researching causes, natural foods and treatments to shrink the fibroid but nothing seems to work or. I know my stress level and poor diet don't help my fibroid so I'm trying to get back to exercising. My periods have had have been so painful with heavy clots due to the fibroid but the worst is a few days after my periods when my estrogen levels rise (which I learned feeds the fibroid). I deal with almost another 4 days of severe lower pelvic pain from the fibroid. So including my period days and the week after, I'm struggling with pain a week and a half every month the past 3 years.

I couldn't take it anymore because I've come to the point where this fibroid made my life miserable and drained. So I went to new Gyn Dr and he told me to leave it alone until I'm ready to get pregnant but I had another option along with that. It made sense. My body just seems prone to cysts and he told me that if I were to get a myomectomy (removal of just the fibroid) it has a chance of growing back again. When I'm ready to have kids he may try a myomectomy. He said for now try NuvaRing. It is suppose to keep my estrogen & progesterone levels constant at low dose. So hopefully the lower dose of estrogen can't feed my fibroid anymore. I just started NuvaRing today but I was very hesitant because I've never tried any form of birth control before and I was worried about side affects such as weight gain.

Has anyone ever tried Nuvaring to help fibroids? Does it helps shrink the fibroid or only help with decreasing the period clots? Also since it is suppose to prevent ovulation and prevent maturing our eggs, is this in any a way a form of saving my eggs for future fertility once I decide to have kids?  

Thanks for your time. I'll update you all on my NuvaRing and Fibroid pain experience in 3 weeks or so when I'm suppose to take out the NuvaRing.

[enlitenurmind]

Hello jkmanue,

I'm sorry to hear about your struggles, I can definitely relate. Have you tried Advil for the cramps, it used to help me. That's just terrible that after surgery, it seems like new fibroids are growing again. That was my Drs concern as well so that's why he opted for NuvaRing before trying surgery. I've been doing some research on fibroids and supposedly its multifactorial (many causes) but one major reason is that there is genetic predisposition for fibroids. I recently asked my mom and little did I know that she had fibroids as well but hers were not as symptomatic as mine. Hers went away after menopause (due to decrease in estrogen). Maybe you can ask your mom or aunts if they ever dealt with fibroids and see what they did about them?

I've been on NuvaRing for one week now and my normal monthly cramps from the fibroid are gone (so far). I didn't even have to take my usual high doses of Advil that I normally do this week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! I'm also glad to hear you didn't have negative side affects. You are right, I even forget I have it in. So far only one week in on NuvaRing, I'm feeling much better but I'll see how it goes end of week 3 when I have to take it out and allow my regular menses flow. Thanks so much for your reply, it was helpful! I hope your NuvaRing experience also helps with shrinking your fibroids. Keep me posted in a few months on how your doing and if your fibroids get better. Take care.

[jkmanue]

Hello, I'm a 22 year old with no children or plans to create any soon, and i suffer from similar issues. I had nine fibroids removed during an extensive four hour surgery last June.(2013) I was put on a daily oral contraceptive a few months after my surgery and had many issues. I currently have five small fibroids. My doctor put me on Nuvaring four weeks ago to help slow the growth of the fibroids as well as help with the severe pain that accompany them. I am on the continuous use schedule, wearing the ring for three weeks then, instead of an "off week", I insert another. I have had some spotting as well as cramping, (I've resigned that I am just cursed with terrible cramps) but other than that, I have had no negative side effects. It is simple and I don't even feel it. I hope you find this somewhat helpful. Good luck on your journey!