From BoffinMumsFibroid: Come here all you fellow fibroids and bring me your success stories

[BoffinMum]

I am a lovely fibroid the size of an orange and I have successfully infiltrated BoffinMum's body causing all sorts of mischief

Roll up, roll up and tell us what you are up to and how big you have grown.

By the way, my role model is the alien that burst out of Sigourney Weaver's body in Alien. Except I do not plan on bursting out!

You gotta be careful. If you find they insert a Mirena it's perfectly possible to eject the thing. I have done this twice now.

Hello Boffin's Fibroid, I'm Luna's fibroid. I am now the size of a grapefruit or a baby's head and have grown 3cm in diameter in the last year. Luna had a Mirena put in to try to deal with me, but I laugh in the face of coils and have just grown in a way which has pushed it out of her cervix and it's now "lost" in her uterus somewhere.

I cause lots of bleeding. Lots. And cramps. And bloating. Luna is trying to decide whether to have an embolization to try to cut off my blood supply but that's not always successful and given my history as a stubborn fucker I am likely to carry on growing and annoying her. The only way to get rid of me completely will be to whip out the entire uterus. I am indestructable and totally evil.

Luna's fibroid, full respect to you. Any fibroid that is up to causing the removal of an entire body organ is a fibroid worth knowing.

I'm not going quietly. I have heard talk of another appointment with a consultant at the end of October to decide how to deal with me, so until then I am trying to create maximum havoc and am revelling in my role. She's off on holiday next week - hope she's not planning on wearing light coloured linen shorts or trousers as I know the best way to scupper those plans.

I've also created such an impressive swelling that she was asked last week whether she was pregnant.

I had one that was 16 cms. I bled like crazy, I had anemia even though I took iron pills everyday. I went to lots of doctors, tried to have a myomectomy (?) couldnt remove it, because it was growing in the walls of the uterus, they offered me a hysterectomy which I refused. At the end thankfully the insurance paid for an embolization I had in the alexandra hospital in manchester. It was VERY painful.

What bit was painful, the fibroid or the embolization?

having the fibroid was painful during periods but that was nothing compared to the pain days after the embolization, it hurt like hell but my fibroid was huge.

but it worked!

Apparently I am now huge too and BoffinMum is now facing surgery as well. She has to have an MRI scan first to map me out. She is not very happy about this.

Good luck Boffinmum.

Boffinmum, good luck with the MRI, been there, got the T-shirt. Some places let you have a friend in with you.

I am actually considering losing absolutely loads of weight in an attempt to shrink the bastard. In the scientific literature there is an apparent link between being overweight and the size of these buggers.

Everything changed around here when Footle got old. I just kind of withered away and can't make her life miserable any more. She's really happy about it.

Hello Brian the Fibroid, your host shouldn't be worried about a MRI. It's just lying on your back for 15 minutes and as they scan the pelvis, your host's head will almost be out of the other end of the scanner anyway. It's the best way of getting a lovely sharp picture of us fribroids.

My host - Luna - had her MRI a couple of weeks ago and we had great news! I'm not alone in her uterus!! As well as the Mireya which I have shoved out of the way, I've spawned a second, smaller version of me. Isn't that fantastic??? Luna not so chuffed with the news and I've definitely picked up the word "hysterectomy" more than once.

I have lost 1.5 kg since I decided to starve the Brian into submission. Is there any science about how likely this is to work? I am assuming that there will be fewer female hormones if I am a lot thinner and this will do for the little bastard. I certainly do not want him to start spawning friends.

PS I could lose up to 4 stone with no ill effects whatsoever as I have a BMI of 33.

I'm the ghost of Emmas fibroid, I didn't go down without a fight though and took her uterus with me

I'm distraught that after a lot of worry and a not altogether painless recovery she's now like a new woman and doesn't miss me one bit

Sailing varied between 9st 4 and 13 stones when I was alive. I stubbornly stayed the size of Carmen Miranda's biggest hat throughout. Sailing tried all the stuff except the coil but I stayed put until she eventually had me put out on the street permanently. She doesn't miss me at all.
Wotta cah!!!

I have read that being overweight produced more oestrogen which feeds the evil fibroid and causes them to grow. I'm overweight too. I think though that it isn't a simple link - or every overweight woman would have fibroids and no skinny woman ever would. Some of us are more sensitive to oestrogen than others. I also don't think there's a connection between large fibroids and spawning - some people have one large fibroid, others have several smaller ones, it appears to be just "one of those things".

Iosing weight isn't going to do any harm. It may stop Brian growing, it may shrink him. On the other hand, it may not. Suppose it depends on how long you can keep going to see if it's making a difference.

Knowing I have another fibroid in addition to the large one has pretty much made up my mind about hysterectomy- I don't want to go through an embolisation plus a hysteroscopy under GA to remove the Mirena only for the second fibroid to start growing too and I'm back at square one in a couple of years. Luckily we have private medical insurance so after seeing the consultant again on Monday it could all happen quite quickly.

Well I've always been pretty slender Luna so I don't know how much weight affects it. My GP said there's no one particular cause, it's just one of those unlucky things.
I felt loads better after my hysterectomy, don't get me wrong the recovery isn't all rainbows and lollypops (I had to have an abdominal hysterectomy because of the size of my lovely guests) but I feel ten times better now.
I was advised against ablation and embolisaton again because of the size and quantity of fibroids would have been quite dangerous and would have caused infertility anyway.
I was 40 when I had it done though and had finished my family.

Hope you don't mind me joining... I've got a whopper on a stalk and it's really getting me down. I don't know what to do about it and it makes my tummy stick out. When I'm lying down I look like a French fancy with the bumpy bit.

Filbert the Fibroid lurking here. In my prime I was 30cm high, making Bear look 6 months pregnant for 2 whole years. I caused no end of problems from heavy bleeding most of the month, hip pain and heart burn. I picked a nice young host (26) so Dr would even think of a hysterectomy. I wasn't even phased by their silly drugs (esmya) MWA HA HA!
And then the day came for the embolization. I didn't go down without a fight, but now I'm a shadow of my former self at 9cm, and to make matters worse, I had to share my lovely home with BabyBear or 9 months. Damn Drs!!

Melon, grapefruit and 5 oranges all evicted on what I call My Best Day Ever. Nice dopey making pill, soft cozy gown (with a hose blowing warm air in), dreamy talks with surgeon etc. 14 hours later I went home, perfectly fine, not hobbling, nothing. Took no more than ibuprofen for 3 or 4 days, then lolled about for a couple of weeks moaning to get back to work. Full hysterectomy, the fruit basket and all. Never missed any of it

I'd have to have abdominal hysterectomy too due to the size of the main fibroid. I think that really is the best long term plan for me, I have no more plans for more kids and although fibroids do shrink after menopause at only 44 that is a decade away.

Ablation-and other options aren't appropriate on my case, so it is a simpler choice to make.

And no more bleeding ever is a huge bonus. Boffin, why do you seem so reluctant to explore the surgical options? Everyone on this thread knows how crap living with fibroids can be.

Gunting - have you had a referral to a gynaecologist to talk through your options?