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VIDEO - HERSTORY: Joanna Shares How She Found The Right Uterine Fibroid Treatment

Joanna discusses the research she conducted to determine which uterine fibroid procedure was best for her.

Joanna:
I want to share some of the research that I did regarding this because I did some pretty extensive research. I knew that there were a lot of options out there, and I have the benefit of working for a company where I get to learn a lot about the different options, and it took me a lot of time. In fact, I researched it so much that it was tiring me out because I am one of those people who wants to make sure that I am pretty thorough when it comes to something, and I dotted my I’s and crossed my T’s. And so just my nature with this, you know, doing all the research, I want to make sure I was coming to the right conclusion of what I wanted to do.

There are several options when it comes to removal of uterine fibroids. It does matter what type of fibroid you have, how many you have, where they are, you know, what the best options are for you. One of the things that I learned about which was really interesting is I learned about MRI-guided ultrasound, which was really, really fascinating to learn about. It actually is pretty non-invasive, and in fact, it is non-invasive. They literally put you through an MRI machine and take a laser and shrink the fibroid that way, which sounded like a great option for me. I was actually surprised that I was a candidate for that because my uterine fibroid is actually a little difficult to get to. It’s partially, I think, subserosal and submucosal.

So basically that translates to it’s a little difficult to get to. So I was surprised that I actually was a candidate for it. I think it’s a great procedure. It’s new so it actually was just approved by the FDA. They are doing clinical trials with that. I was actually approached about being in a clinical trial. It’s definitely something that I was interested in doing, but that would take some time, and I just didn’t know if I had the time. I am not sleeping every night as it is. So taking months more was a little difficult, but I think it’s a really interesting procedure that it’s not covered usually by health insurance and is in some cases.

But I think it’s something that patients as well as doctors need to become more aware of because when I was going to different doctors I asked them about it, and they know something about it. But I think it’s an educational process for doctors as well because it’s really pretty interesting, and I think it would save people a lot of time and headaches and time in the hospital. I mean, I am going to spend three to four days in the hospital with what I decided to do, which is the uterine myomectomy.

So it’s something that I think is very interesting. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to pursue it anymore because of the time factor, and it isn’t covered my insurance. Because of where it is, laparoscopy, which is a shorter time in the hospital was only an option for me if I could go to specific doctor, which was not covered by my insurance. I was trying to look out of network to see if they would cover it, but I just really didn’t think it was an option once I looked at it.

And the thing is with that, there would be more of a chance that there could be issues during the procedure. If they have difficulty getting to the fibroid, I could start having an intense bleeding and be at higher risk for something going wrong.

So I just decided that the more invasive is the uterine myomectomy. They have to put me under. It’s basically like a C-section. What I have been told it’s a little bit more difficult than a C-section, but for me, it really was the best choice for me because it will totally get rid of the fibroid and help me hopefully with the sleeping issue.

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