If you need treatment for fibroids, you have options, including pain medicine, hormonal therapy, and surgery. Together with your doctor, you will develop a treatment plan based on:

• Symptoms, if any

• Your reproductive wishes

• The size and location of the fibroids

• Your age

If you have fibroids, but no symptoms, your doctor may recommend a wait-and-see approach, with regular check-ups to see if your fibroids grow, before recommending a course of therapy.³

For fibroids with mild symptoms, your doctor may suggest over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, or other painkillers such as acetaminophen. If the pain worsens, your doctor may prescribe a stronger, prescription painkiller.

Fibroids are sometimes treated with drugs called gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists or analogues (GnRHa) to decrease the size of the fibroids. GnRHas are sometimes used before surgery to shrink fibroids for easier removal.

Another option your doctor may prescribe is a drug called an anti-hormonal agent, such as mifepristone, which may stop or slow the growth of fibroids. However, relief from the symptoms of fibroids is temporary with anti-hormonal agents. Once therapy stops, fibroids grow back.³

For fibroids with moderate or severe symptoms, surgery may be the best treatment. Surgical options include:

• Endometrial ablation—the destruction of the endometrial lining of the uterus. This operation is used to control very heavy bleeding, but eliminates the possibility of future childbearing.³

• Myomectomy—surgery to remove fibroids without taking out the healthy tissue of the uterus. Myomectomy is not appropriate in all cases. Its use is determined by the type, size, and location of the fibroids.³ Myomectomies can also be performed in a minimally invasive manner using a laparoscopic approach.

  Click here to watch an animation comparing an open and minimally invasive fibroid removal (myomectomy).

• Hysterectomy—surgery to remove the uterus is the only certain cure for uterine fibroids. Hysterectomy may be recommended if the fibroids are large, if bleeding is heavy, if a woman is near/past menopause, or if the woman does not want children. There are various types of hysterectomies your physician may recommend.³

  During the most commonly performed hysterectomy, a total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH), the uterus is removed through a large incision in the abdomen. Recovery requires a hospital stay of three to five days. Normal activity may resume in six weeks.⁴

  Click here to watch an animation of a total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH).

  However, there are other surgical options for you to consider as well. Minimally Invasive Procedures (MIP), such as vaginal or laparoscopic hysterectomies, result in less recovery time, less time in the hospital, less scarring, and less pain. Find out more about MIP for hysterectomy and whether or not MIP may be an option for you.

  Click here to watch an animation comparing an open and minimally invasive hysterectomy.