Fibroid growing signs and private testing

[Mindovermatter45]

Hi,

I've been to my GP today and whilst womens health fobbed off, I got out of the room with a blood test for checking my under active thyroid so that is something.

The receptionist to their credit booked me a female doctor with the attitude they might take a look downstairs but all I got was peri, peri, peri.

I'm beginning to think I'd like to get hormone bloods done privately if the surgery want to keep up refusal and apparently I'll never be tested, is this possible private if I'm normally difficult to get blood from?

What are the signs of a fibroid growing? I've had a feeling of discomfort down below and in my pelvis for the past fortnight, like a corset being tightened. Water works can sometimes look a darker colour despite drinking up to 2 litres a day.

Someone was saying it could be weight loss related but it isn't like I've lost 4 stone in 4 weeks, more over the past 2 years and I'm sure in my younger years dropping from 14 to 10 stone I just don't recall these issues.

My doctor felt my lower tummy and asked if I was sure there was no chance of pregnancy as she could feel my uterus. I had felt a lump and also what I assumed was my uterus when laying down for a few months before being seen, as well as ridiculously heavy and frequent periods. A scan 2 weeks later (was put on the 2 week pathway) confirmed my fibroid had grown to the point my uterus was the equivalent size of a 23 week pregnancy.
I had a hysterectomy just before Christmas.

Ah thank you, I don't have my Mum to ask as she went through a hysterectomy and didn't go through menopause, maybe with the mention of private they just stop listening.

I can have private scans but I don't have the thousands that would be charged for a hysterectomy.

I think they just think going up another pump of Oestrogel is the answer.

I said I've heard other Fibroid sufferers say they are told HRT feeds fibroids but least like all the others medics this doctor today said she couldn't say it definitely doesn't. All I got was we only test under 35's if early menopause is suspected.
We presume you are in peri.

I'm not clear if you actually definitely have fibroids and you wonder if they have grown, or whether you just think you might have them?
Fibroids can produce all sorts of symptoms (or none) depending on their type, size and location. There are no standard symptoms. Having said that, I can't see any reason they would change the colour of your urine. Nobody on the internet can diagnose you. If your symptoms are serious enough to affect your life, or they are worrying/sinister, then go back to the GP and request an ultrasound.

I have had a fibroid seen at least twice on a private scan which for the good part my GP accepts and seems committed to keep this on the record. Prior to going private I tried to get help from the nhs but to all intense purposes they woke me up from a hysterscopy (done under general) saying there was no fibroid but the symptoms never dissolved, briefly helped on starting hrt progesterone but has come back in the last fortnight.

I don't know what made the nhs do this, apart from what comes across is the fibroid doesn't really cause symptoms, but I beg to differ. It is so, so long winded I could lose myself in it, they have even tried to apportion blame on a spinal condition for pelvic pressure but does a spinal condition really make periods come 14 days. More likely it is a thyroid out of whack causing problems and I'm really hoping it will come back as out of kilter.

I am told there really is no help for the type of Fibroid I have (fine I have to live with this) and find myself on hrt with periods still coming, I don't suffer night sweats in fact the reverse. When I question why are you putting up HRT without testing my hormones I am being told no test exists unless I'd be under 35.

I just wonder if the new symptoms meant it has grown, when I've asked on a support group they are quick to tell me HRT grows a fibroid but again everyone seen up until today said that isn't true.

I'm not expecting anyone to diagnose me.

Impossible to say, I think. HRT could make it grow, or not. They are supposed to grow in pregnancy, but mine didn't. Everyone is different.
How big was your fibroid and what type? A small fibroid poking out the outside of your uterus on a stalk is likely to cause more problems than a much bigger intramural fibroid. Location and type is really important.

Thank you everyone.

update: after my rhino skin allowed for a blood test, turns out I've been on to much levothyroxine! thank the lord, dose is being lowered. The private menopause testing company were confident taking blood is no issue but the ladies at the health centre yesterday were having a right battle.

I don't mind how I long I have to wait but they are now re-referring me to a different nhs trust for gynae. 🙏

Fortunately not the one on the stork but intramural and small just making 3cm 6 months ago according to the private sonographer who said just leave it alone.
I fell a couple of weeks ago on the right side (back wall) where it is positioned and since there the pressure has come back and increased. Pee'ing has never felt right since 2022.

3cm intramural is small and the best type to have. Unlikely to be causing symptoms. Also if you mean it's on the back wall of your uterus it can't be affecting your bladder surely?

Ah thanks I thought intramural was worst one for actual removal as it can be buried to deep? The NHS said it was a different one but when I went through a hysterscopy last year (not awake) they said there was no fibroid found but could name the type where for the whole year before the procedure I spent to see Gynae, no one could tell me what type the ultrascan in May 23 detected when it was first said a fibroid was seen.

I just went for a walk one day in December 2022 had a searing pain down below and basically left with issues that do not seem to fit a 'recovered well from spinal surgery' situation. Basically two medical issues possibly happened that day and whilst for a period Progesterone worked superbly it has now stopped and I just struggle thinking weight loss brings this torture.

I've even been through a colonoscopy when blood was detected in a stool sample but that just seemed to get a conclusion of well, it's not bowel cancer and that was it despite inflammation found during the process.

I'd raised a complaint to the GP as to why they no longer exam patients and I'm just greeted with a well we'll send you back to gynae I really hope it won't be another dead end. Hopefully if I can lose some more weight I may stand a better chance as I have often wondered if my size at the time of seeing gynae was more then just a warning/refuse to help someone baring more weight.

I'm way to scared to be intimate with anyone, this isn't how I envisaged my 40's to be, maybe 60 I could accept well the bladder and bowel gets older.

Ah I see, no I meant intramural is the best type to have in terms of not causing problems. Basically it just means your uterine wall is 3cm fatter at that point. That's all. It seems unlikely such a tiny fibroid is causing issues, and therefore why would you want to remove it?
Sorry I don't really know anything about the other issues, I only know a bit about fibroids!

Your symptoms do sound like fibroid trouble. I had one which went from 6cm up to 9cm in <6 months - I attribute this to HRT but there is no way of knowing for sure how big a role HRT played versus my own hormones. Mine was also intramural and I was told to leave it alone.
Until it was 6cm I wasn't aware of its existence and it caused me no trouble at all. It was discovered quite by accident when being scanned for another issue.

Only, it did not leave me alone. I had pelvic pressure and weeing became increasingly difficult - especially trouble starting where I had to put pressure/ breathe contracting my core to get started.
I could clearly see it when lying down on my back.

I saw few specialists and they all said I needed surgery to remove the fibroid or to remove the uterus altogether. I wanted neither.
So I opted for uterine embolisation which is a process by which the blood supply to the fibroid is cut off, and it stops growing and then shrinks to a small mass that lives in the same place but causes no trouble. It is minimally invasive and carried out under sedation.

I think measuring your hormones will not tell you much as it is snapshot of that moment and hormones can go up/down even through the day let alone across days. Also, it yours was 3cm 6 months ago, that does not mean it is still the same size. It can grow suddenly and rapidly.
However this does not mean that your root cause is definitely the fibroid, it could be several things and fibroid is one of the possibilities.

If you'd like the name of my consultant please DM me. All my treatment was private.