Dr. Parker,
Thank you for writing your book. I ordered it and read it cover to cover in 2 days. It was so informative and well written! I have made an appointment to see you. I read your website and did not see any articles about treating fibroids with birth control pills as an option. I am a 46, had an ablation which worked for almost 1 year but then I developed more fibroids. The ablation treated only the internal fibroids, but I have them inside and outside the uterus.
I have been to 3 different physicians. The 1st insisted on hysterectomy, I fled. The second performed ablation surgery. The 3rd also recommended hysterectomy but I wanted to try some other options first. He put me on Lo Loestrin FE. For the 1st 3 months I bled almost the entire time, continued to have clots and severe cramps. He said he could give me a stronger pill but it would have more side effects. I agreed to wait one more month for my body to try to adapt to the pills. During the 4th month I did not bleed for 3 weeks and was elated, thinking it had kicked in. But on day 19 while still taking the pills my period arrived, that was 9 days ago and it is still going strong, horrible clotting, intermittent, unpredictable, profuse bleeding, plus irritability and mentally horrified. I have a demanding job and I am the boss, so I can’t just call in sick.
I run from public restroom to restroom, come up with clever ways to shorten meetings, carry paper towels in my car for traffic jams, wear mostly black clothing…no way to live. Please note that I am in excellent health otherwise and no signs of menopause except that I missed one period in January of this year. I was so hopeful but it seems Aunt Flo is not leaving any time soon. My question is this, is there a pill that will control the symptoms until menopause?
Sorry to hear about your problem. In my experience, birth control pills don’t work if any of the fibroids are near or bulging into the uterine cavity. No one pill is necessarily any better than another – it is trial and error to see if another pill might work. Other options would include uterine artery embolization or myomectomy (possibly laparoscopic depending on the size and number of fibroids). Hysterectomy should be a last resort. Embolization might be worth thinking about – it is essentially non-invasive and has good results for heavy bleeding.
More about this here: https://www.fibroidsecondopinion.com/uterine-artery-embolization/
I hope this is helpful,
Bill Parker, MD
