“After a four-year battle with uterine fibroids, I am finally surrendering. Last Monday, I checked into N.Y. Presbyterian Hospital and underwent a hysterectomy. I am 34 years old.
“It is a tough goodbye. I really like my uterus. I don’t have personal relationships with all of my internal organs, but this one was special. She protected and carried my lovely daughter for nine months. She was with me every step of the way in a 12-hour, natural delivery. My uterus and I did not take so much as a Tylenol while birthing that seven-pound baby. We are very proud of ourselves.
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Sad…and it disproportionately affects Black woman. I know two Black woman (both 32) right now recovering from myomectomies
It seems like I know a lot of women with this too. I’ve heard that it’s cause by not having kids and also your diet.
Anyone have insight into this?
My wife also fought the uterus battle after our daughter was born. She was able to hold on to it long enough for us to have a second child. Eventually the treatments no longer worked and she started experiencing lots of pain. She had her uterus and one ovary removed. The doctor was able to leave one ovary which made a world of difference she did not have any side affects after the surgery.
fasting shrinks uterine fibroids. completely. no doctor will tell you this. ever. how do you charge someone for healing themselves?
this is a dietary disease. as are most diseases. they will prescribe black women toxic medication which causes their bodies to cease making estrogen naturally but will never say, stop eating cow products, including meat. how could they, when they have already lied and said these products were the best way to get calcium and protein.
i just did a post on this here: http://thenewfastgirls.blogspot.com/2008/07/neglectful-medicine.html
“my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” -God
read “The miracle of Fasting” by Paul and Patricia Bragg or go to http://www.thenewfastgirls.blogspot.com. And if you know any woman with this curable disease send her there too.
A Natural Approach to Treating Uterine Fibroids
By Dr. Ben Kim on August 31, 2005 Natural Health Solutions
“We recently had a guest at our fasting clinic who was startled to find that on day 7 of her water-only fast, she could no longer feel a uterine fibroid in her lower abdomen that she had been carrying around for years.
I can confirm from the evaluation that I did on her first day with us that she had a mass that was about the size of a medium-sized adult fist in her lower abdomen, diagnosed by ultrasound as a uterine fibroid before she arrived. I couldn’t find even a trace of a mass when I did a thorough re-check of her abdomen.
I was, of course, extremely happy for her healing experience. Although some of the guests who visit our clinic experience obvious symptoms of cleansing and detoxification like diarrhea and vomiting, it never gets old to see a dramatic change like the melting away of a benign tumour.
Getting back to uterine fibroids, our recent guest’s positive experience prompted me to outline some thoughts on their origin and some steps that all women can take to help prevent their growth and formation and even help to reduce or eliminate existing fibroids.”
The rest of this article can be found here: http://www.drbenkim.com/articles-uterine-fibroids.html
That’s good shet Jasai. Good shet.
J:
Everyone I know who has had fibroids had children.
One of the 2 females I know recovering has 3 children.
The other has zero, but she doesn’t eat red meat or pork… only organic chicken, turkey, and fish
Readers may wish to check out UCLA-based Dr. Bruce McLucas, founder of the Fibroid Treatment Collective to pursue alternatives to hysterectomy. McLucas has lots of information about uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) — he was part of the first team to perform embolization in the US . Condeleezza Rice underwent UFE several years ago. http://www.fibroids.com/
My mother (51 yo) discovered she had fibroids about 5 years ago.
She has 3 kids…had all 3 of us before the age of 32.
All my life she’s been a vegetarian up until she started back on chicken a few years ago. A fairly healthy eater too.
I have not the slightest idea what caused hers, I’ve been trying to figure it out since I found out.
If I knew a woman with terrible fibroids that needed treatment. I would recommend uterine artery embolization. There’s a great female radiologist that does them in the south suburbs of chicago. I’ve done the anesthesia (epidural) for it and the patients do great (maybe thats because my epidurals ROCK!!) Nevertheless, they can be awake for the whole procedure, or asleep (sedated) if they want. They have NO pain.
Get to keep the uterus too.
I had a cousin who discovered she had them when she was pregnant with her fourth and fifth when she was 34. Unfortunately the pregnancy hormones fueled the fibroids and she had miserable pregnancy.
She had her first child at 21 and first set of twins at 23.
but why do any “procedure” if one doesn’t have to?
if you are overweight you are subject to this disease because fat produces estrogen. we get fat from the food we eat. whether it is “good for you” by Western nutritional standards matters not. in america we eat to much. too often. when the body has to digest and metabolize and get rid of the waste from this overfeeding, it can not properly perform many of the other functions it is designed to do, and at the cellular level, the body begins to break down. there is nothing else the body can do but follow suit.
Fibroids have nothing to do with having or not having children. estrogen. period.
If anyone has ever read anything by Caroline Myss you will understand the gravity of this. Here is what she has to say, in part, about so much quick “treatment” and removal:
Fibroid tumors represent our creativity that was never bixrthed, including “fantasy” images of ourselves that have never seen the light of day and creative secrets of our other “selves.” Fibroids also result when we are flowing life energy into dead ends, such as jobs or relationships that we have outgrown. Fibroids are often associated with conflicts about creativity, reproduction and relationships. In our rapidly changing culture where women’s roles are in flux, it is quite obvious to me that conflicts about child rearing, personal expressions of creativity, and changing roles in relationships are a cultural phenomenon, not just and individual one. One of my patients, afetr looking at her fibroid, said that it was easy to see a fibroid as a form of hard, implacable anger. The fact that so many women have these growths [insert: black women especially] is perhaps evidence of out collective blocked energy in this culture.
last comment interesting given that I was first told I had a fibroid at age 17.
family is seventh-day adventist w/vegetarian diet for religious reasons—had hysterectomy for bad fibroids after 2 children
so diet? hmmmm…definitely not the whole story
It is more prevalent in black women though. Good topic.
above—I was referring to a cousin (hyst after 2 kids), not myself—just for the record
estrogen is the issue. either you have too much of it in your diet or you are eating too much of whatever you are eating, creating too much fat which produces estrogen. but the fact is the body will destory the fibroids if you allow it the opportunity.
But I can certainly understand a woman telling me what her doctor told her. that’s the problem though. they only know what they study.
western medicine hasen’t found a cure for anything in the entire history of it’s practice. just drugs. just more poison.
“Fibroids have nothing to do with having or not having children. estrogen. period.”
I can partially agree with that because fibroids do form due to an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone in the female body. However, as a person who is NOT overweight, does not eat meat and dairy products and exercise regularly, I do not agree that it is solely weight and diet and yes, I fast, God did I ever fast and my fibroids did not go away.
I’ll share this much because I am CURRENTLY recovering from a myomectomy and I am 32 and African American. I had nine fibroids removed. When I ponder about my life over the years and why these fibroids might have formed, I assure you, it was not the diet, the exercise, not having children, MAYBE estrogen, but the one consistent theme in my life was STRESS; faking happiness will eventually manifest in our bodies in some shape form or fashion. So I can fully support the notion: “Fibroids also result when we are flowing life energy into dead ends, such as jobs or relationships that we have outgrown.”
Oh, for women who do not plan on having children, then have the uterine artery embolization, BUT if you DO plan on having children, have the myomenctomy because the uterine artery embolization procedure is very unclear in terms of preserving one’s fertility.
It always seems to be the perception of opinion vs. fact we all struggle with. We’re all entitled to our own opinions.
You brought out some very good and informed points Recovering. I should have clarified my meaning relative to the issue of childbirth.
Since soy is high in phytoestrogens, do you think that the trend of eating soy products as part of a “healthy” diet has something to do with this?
Recovering,
Thanks for sharing that. I have a close female family member that had fibroids. The doctors wanted to remove them surgically, but she chose to visit an herbalist instead. She fasted for 7 days, and they went away.
So, in essence, what Jasai says is what I’ve seen with my own eyes to be true. Fasting is the body’s natural cure for many ailments.
http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2007/06/21/what-are-parabens-and-why-should-you-avoid-them/
About chemicals that mimic estrogen
All of our bodies respond differently to whatever food, substance, herb or chemical we put in our bodies. I assure you fasting did not shrink nor dissolve my fibroids, which two were the size of grapefruits, the rest were lemons and golf balls and growing.
J,
I could disclose my entire exercise& diet regimen/medical experience with you, but I am not trying to change anyone’s perspective here. I’m just sharing a snippet relative to the topic. I don’t know the size of your family member’s fibroids, nor the location (inside or outside the uterus), the overall seriousness of it or if she was fortunate to discover her fibroids in its early growth stages or stagnate stages. Fibroids vary in size and location, which is a big factor in ‘how’ a woman decides to realistically ‘treat’ them…be it fasting, surgery or ignoring them. Fasting does cure “many” ailments, so I don’t dispute Jasai claims completely. Again, I support her notion for stress being a factor. However, I am speaking from personal experience, not a family member’s point of view.
Dina,
You could very well be on to something. I am quite guilty of soy in my teas.
Thanks for the link.
Recovering,
Thanks for sharing!
My mother, who had fibroids, was a patient of Dr. Bruce Mc Lucas as discussed above.