In 2016, I started to get a new kind of pain around my womb. I had been diagnosed with endometriosis in 2012 but these new symptoms felt like an entirely different beast all together.
My mid-section felt heavier, my periods were uncontrollable and sex almost always ended in a blood bath which, as a single person, made dating a bit of an awkward nightmare.
After many invasive investigations that often left me in floods of tears as any kind of penetration was agony, I learned that I had fibroids. For a while, the doctors thought I may have had an ovarian cyst, which was very familiar to me, but fibroids were a whole new concept.
They shouldn’t have been.
Around 80% of women will develop fibroids at some point in their lives
According to the NHS, fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the womb (uterus).
The health service adds: “The growths are made up of muscle and fibrous tissue, and vary in size. They’re sometimes known as uterine myomas or leiomyomas.”
Many women have these without any symptoms and around 80% of us will develop them at some point in our lives.
For those of us who do get symptoms, they can include:
The NHS adds: “In rare cases, further complications caused by fibroids can affect pregnancy or cause infertility.”
Pregnancy can make fibroids more difficult to live with
For those that do manage to conceive with fibroids, the road to having a child isn’t easy.
Writing for BBC Science Focus, women’s health expert Dr Michelle Giffin said: “If they didn’t already have enough to worry about, women who are found to have fibroids during pregnancy need careful monitoring and must be vigilant for signs of ‘red degeneration’.
“This is when the fibroids have grown so fast – due to the increase in pregnancy hormones – that their centres break down. When this happens, women experience vomiting, fever and extreme pain over the abdomen and pelvis, and require immediate medical attention.”
Treatment for fibroids is rarely simple
For myself, the road to treatment was a very long one. As I still want children, a hysterectomy was off the cards and other options were limited, too.
Some women opt for a radiation treatment named fibroid embolisation (also called uterine artery embolisation), which blocks the arteries that supply blood to the fibroids and makes them shrink.
However, this isn’t possible for many of us. For myself, my biggest fibroid was 18x27x13cm, which was far too big to be removed by this minimally invasive process.
Dr Giffin said: “Gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists (such as Goserelin) are typically used in treatment, although they can’t be recommended for long-term use.
“Reducing essential hormones like oestrogen and progesterone can cause serious side effects, including infertility, hot flushes and vaginal dryness, as well as significant bone mineral density loss, which can lead to osteoporosis.”
This was the option I was left with as a short-term solution before surgery. It did shrink my fibroids quite significantly and three months after my dose, I underwent open surgery.
This surgery left me with a wide scar on my abdomen and I’ll never be able to give birth vaginally, if I ever do conceive.
It took eight years and many different attempts at treatments but a year ago, I finally had these tumours removed.
What to do if you think you may have fibroids
Those experiencing symptoms should consult their GP who can provide a diagnosis and discuss the best treatment options.
If a doctor thinks you might have fibroids, they’ll carry out a pelvic examination to look for any obvious signs and then might refer you to hospital for more tests, such as an ultrasound scan.
“Early intervention can alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life,” London Pregnancy Clinic concludes.