The RU-486 pill used to terminate early pregnancies, also known as mifepristone or the "abortion pill," has been found to have impressive potential as a treatment for uterine fibroids.| Take Action |
Learn more about medical treatments:
Medical treatments temporarily alleviate fibroid symptoms. They may shrink fibroids, but cannot eliminate them.
Medicines are a good option for women experiencing heavy bleeding, but not for women who suffer from pressure symptoms due to large fibroids.
GnRH agonists induce temporary chemical menopause.
Androgens, or male hormones, can relieve fibroid symptoms but have unwanted side effects.
Oral contraceptive pills may help reduce heavy bleeding. |
Fibroids occur in an estimated one in four women in their late reproductive years. While some are harmless and may go unnoticed for years, others cause a range of symptoms, including pelvic pain, excessive vaginal bleeding, repeated miscarriage, and urinary or bowel problems, and these problematic fibroids require treatment.
While most lasting treatments, which include such diverse methods as uterine artery embolization, laparoscopic surgery, targeted high-intensity ultrasound treatment, and cryomyolysis, involve the removal or destruction of fibroid tissue, doctors often prescribe medications that shrink fibroids in the months leading up to the procedures in order to reduce the mass of the tissue that must be removed or destroyed, thereby simplifying and shortening the procedure.
Since estrogen is the hormone responsible for making fibroids grow, the medications used to stop fibroid growth and shrink them all act to disrupt estrogen production and use in the body. These medications include hormone replacement medications similar to those used during and after menopause, GnRH agonists or antagonists, and prescription contraceptive pills. While further research must be conducted, the mifepristone pill has been tentatively added to the range of medications currently in use.
Dr. Steven H. Eisinger and colleagues at New York’s University of Rochester discovered that 5 milligrams (mg) of mifepristone – only a small fraction of the 600 mg dose needed to terminate pregnancy – is effective in shrinking fibroids, and can reduce the size of fibroid sufferers’ uteruses by about half. The doctors hope that after further testing, the medication may altogether eliminate the need for surgery in some patients.
Since the 600 mg dose prescribed to terminate pregnancy frequently causes pronounced side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and hot flashes, doctors were optimistic about the efficacy of such small doses in fibroid treatment, since the absence of significant side effects may make the drug practical for long term treatment, in some cases possibly even staving off fibroid growth until the onset of menopause, after which time fibroids shrink without intervention.
