A procedure known as cryomyolysis can eliminate the need for surgery in the treatment of uterine fibroids.| Take Action |
Cryomyolysis is not for you if:
Your fibroids are very large (anything over 10 cm)
You have more than four fibroids, each with volume of up to 5 cm
Your fibroids are too small (less than 3 cm in size)
You plan on having children. The disruption of uterine wall integrity increases the risk of uterine rupture during pregnancy. |
Uterine fibroids are benign tumors that grow inside the uterus, in the muscle wall of the uterus, or attached to the uterus, and effect roughly a quarter of pre-menopausal women over the age of thirty-five. While some are tiny and go unnoticed, others can cause a number of disruptive or painful symptoms – ranging from abdominal discomfort and bloating to irregular or heavy menstrual bleeding to repeated miscarriage – depending on their size, number, and location.
Fibroids that cause problematic symptoms require treatment. Treatments range in technique and invasiveness from externally administered ultrasound to hysterectomy. Among the currently available group of minimally invasive treatments is cryomyolysis, which uses a targeted stream of liquid nitrogen as a freezing agent to freeze and destroy fibroid tissue, so that it can be absorbed by the body or broken down and expelled.
For those who want to avoid the risks, pain, and long recovery time of open surgery and hope to avoid hysterectomy, cryomyolysis can be an effective alternative. The procedure, which can be performed on an outpatient basis using only local anesthesia, uses a small, telescope-like tube called a laparoscope inserted into the uterus to guide doctors and help them administer the freezing agent precisely, and takes only a short time to complete. Risks and after-effects of the procedure may include vaginal bleeding or tissue expulsion, soreness at the site of the procedure, and the need to remove necrotic (dead and disintegrating) tissue that has not been naturally expelled or absorbed by the body.
