A Story From The Clinic
I wanted to share a story about a patient that I saw in my office this month. She was a young patient in her early thirties, and she came to me with this large fibroid. Now, she had been to the doctor maybe four years ago, but not a gynecologist. She went to a different doctor who said, "Oh yeah, your stomach is getting bigger, but maybe, you know, I think you're gaining weight, you should exercise a little bit more.” So that's what she did. She didn't go to the doctor for three years during COVID.
After COVID, she went to a gynecologist this year who actually did an exam and said, oh, you have fibroids and this fibroid is huge. We don't know how long it's been going on. Not sure if it's cancerous. I recommend hysterectomy.” The patient was sent to another physician, another specialist who also said the same because they had no imaging to compare it to and were concerned that it was cancerous. The new specialist also recommended a hysterectomy.
The patient then came to see me as a third opinion because she was young, she wanted to have kids. She didn't want her uterus taken out, she just wanted the fibroid removed. I counseled her appropriately and we decided to proceed with removing just the fibroid.
We did surgery and I was able to save her uterus. I removed this large complex fibroid. Luckily everything was benign and she was able to save her uterus and preserve fertility. And as we are in Fibroid Awareness Month, I Wanted to pull out two lessons from this case that I wanted to share with you guys.
If you are a woman with female parts,make sure you are seeing a gynecologist every year. You may think everything is normal,you really don't have any complaints. But make sure you are getting a thorough breast exam and a pelvic exam every year, because there are some things that a gynecologist can appreciate that maybe you can’t. If this patient had been seeing a gynecologist all along, her fibroid would have been likely picked up.
Don't be afraid to seek a second or a third opinion. Maybe you have a gynecologist that you love and they recommend a hysterectomy. Perhaps, you will need one afterall, but maybe there are some other options. So don't feel nervous or afraid or think you will offend your doctor by seeking a second or a third opinion. You want to be sure before you do that surgery that it is truly something you need.
So those are two lessons that I pulled out from this case I wanted to share with you.
If you are a patient in the Bay area who has fibroids and you're looking for treatment options, I would love to see you in the office. I'm in Lafayette, and our website is www.LamorindaGyn.com, and our phone number is 925-744-7473.
Please subscribe to my email list; you can find it at www.LamorindaGyn.com, I'll be sending an email every other week on various health topics that affect women. And I would love for you to also share this with a friend or family member. And don't forget to follow me on YouTube and Instagram as well @TheFibroidDoc.
For more educational videos like this, visit TheFibroidDoc’s YouTube channel.
