Talk to me about cysts and fibroids

[Cheshire]

Oh, women of great knowledge, I need your wisdom and advice.

About 6 years ago I had a cyst on my left ovary about the size of a baseball. We watched it and it eventually went away on its own.

Three years ago I gave birth to a 10lb 11oz bouncing baby boy.

Ever since giving birth things just haven't seemed normal. Most recently I've been feeling very full in the pelvic area, lots of nausea, period type cramps every day, back pain, have to pee a lot, etc.

My midwife sent me in for a sonogram and said I have cysts on both ovaries, the largest one is on the left ovary again (about half the size of a lemon) and the big surprise, I have a fibroid in my uterus about an inch across.

UGH! They are sending me to an ob/gyn on Monday. They said he'd probably want to do a transvaginal ultrasound.

What else can I expect? Everything I've read says they are common and most women that have fiboids never experience problems. Well, I've got the problems they describe and am not sure what all of my options will be.

We don't think we're done having babies. Any suggestions???

[nimblemama]

My friend has had a fibroid on her uterus (not sure of exact location) for several years. She took herbs which seemed to shrink it. She became pg in the fall and the fibroid was very small. Well, pg hormones often make fibroids grow, which happened to my friend. She miscarried at 12 weeks and had to have an emergency D/C because the fibroid was so large, she could not pass all the blood and tissue from the baby.

I have read that many times, a fibroid will have no effect on a pregnancy. But, in those odd occasions, it can cause miscarriage, reduce growing room in the uterus, or cause the women to need a c-section (if the fibroid is in the way of the cervix at time of delivery).

[Cheshire]

Just bumping to see if anyone else had any more insight?

[Alison Cole]

If I were in your position and could make it work financially, I would seek out acupuncture and/or homeopathy and see if that helped, before turning to surgury, which may or may not be suggested.

I hope this helps, and wish I had more to offer. Good luck.

[red moon]

hi there,
one thing you might want to look into is a tincture of Chickweed, taken consistently it can help dissolve just such cysts. Be patient and stay with it, could be a few months before you see changes. 3-4 dropperfulls a day. Also, if you can, eat frequent salads of chickweed-look around your house, I bet it's growing right there!
Also, how old are you?

[Reha]

I highly recommend getting a copy of Dr. Christiane Northrup's 'Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom'. She addresses cysts and fibroids (and all sorts of other female topics) from a unique perspective. It is a wonderful book.

[notjustmamie]

Not a B.P., but I wanted to share that a good friend of mine had several fibroids which she believes caused her to miscarry her first baby. She had really good luck shrinking them by going on a vegan diet. Don't know if that's something you'd want to consider. She did go on to carry her second pregnancy to term, but she added meats back into her diet during pg (she was having trouble getting enough protein) and a fibroid did grow back.

Amy

[bryonyvaughn]

I second the recommendation of seeing a classical homeopath. Synthetic hormones (bcp, depo provera, etc) aggravate fibroids as does caffeine consumption.

~BV