Opinions, suggestions on pregnancy and fibroids

A little about me: Pretty healthy 31 (soon to be 32) year old. Never been pregnant, work out on a regular basis, regular periods (minus a few days of spotting before actual period), off the pill since August '07. Live a healthy lifestyle, don't smoke, socially drink.


I went for a regular pap in June and found out that I had an enlarged uterus. An ultrasound later, I was told that I had a fibroid about 6 1/4cm. My husband and I want to try to get pregnant and I have been off the pill since August of 2007 (not seriously charting my ovulation cylce until this past month). Today I went to the doctor for a scheduled hystosonogram, which I ended up only having a vaginal ultrasound to have my new doctor check the fibroid out. It is now 7 1/2cm. My doctor gave 3 options:

1. Have my husband get a sperm analysis because it is least invasive.

2. Keep trying to get pregnant but know that there are risks included in trying to get pregnant with a fibroid. Miscarriage, ceasection (sp?), pre-term labor, etc.

3. Have abdominal myomectomy to remove the tumor.

I am so scared of both 2 and 3. #2 because I don't want to go through the emotional pain of losing or causing harm to our unborn baby. #3 because I've never had surgery on anything! I know that there are also risks in this surgery.

My question to any of you is- have you gotten pregnant with fibroids? I'm so confused what to do and am definitely going to speak to someone about other opinions. I want/need to hear "real-life" opinions from people that actually have fibroids.

Thank you so much!
A

I went to my doctor in 2002 for a pregnancy test and found out then that I had fibroids. My fibroids were so invasive that the fetus did not show up on the sonogram in my doctors office. My doctor then told me to prepare for a miscarriage becuase the fibroids were so large that my pregnancy could not go full term. Devastated, I returned home sobbing to my husband and we cried all weekend. I was 38 and very healthy otherwise, with totally normal periods, etc.

I went to a sonogram at the local hospital about one week later and entered the room shaking. While on the table, I watched the sonogram technicians face so closely for any facial expressions and then she smiled! The fetus appeared totally normal and everything was ok. She measured all the fibroids and off I went. I think I frightened my doctor because she had never dealt with fibroids in this size or amount before with a pregnancy. She was very honest with me at all times and even suggested adoption over and over. We were prepared for the worst and it did not happen. With any pregnancy, there is risk. We declined almost all tests that would be invasive to the fetus and were prepared to accept whatever the outcome.

So, to answer your question, yes pregnancy is possible, and I had the worst case scenario handed to me every time I went to see my doctor. My husband and I joked about how my doctor described my huge uterus to me every time I saw her, even if it was in the same week! I think she was totally freaked out by my situation.

I did have some very painful bouts during the pregnancy, but chose not to go on any drugs for the safety of our baby. There were 3 days out of the entire pregnancy that were bad, but overall it went fine and the pain went away. My back did hurt a lot so I was on bedrest after my 3rd month. I had a scheduled C-Section one week before my due date. We now have a beautiful 4 1/2 year old boy who I thank God for each and every day! The C-section was painless, even the spinal tap before. I had wonderful doctors in the ER. There was a radiologist on stand-by and several other specialists there just in case I had issues with bleeding. Our son is the miracle child in all of our eyes.

There is so much more to tell but I'll stop here. I hope this was helpful.

L

L,

Thank you so much for your reply. It sounds like your situation was a lot worse than mine, but you still made it through just fine AND have a little boy. Your doctor reminds me of mine. She seemed like a real Negative Nelly. My doctor didn't seem to offer any other options besides the myomectomy. I was the same way (granted there wasn't a baby involved) when the ultrasound was being done on the fibroid, I was watching the doctor's facial expressions and that's what really made me a nervous wreck. Now that I'm writing this, I feel like I may need to find another doctor instead of going any further with the current one.


My husband went for a sperm analysis last week and we'll have the results of that on Tuesday. I'm sure that will be just fine. The ironic thing of this is since I wrote about this, I have been spotting since January 11th which is freaking me out a bit. I did call my doctor to let her know and she hasn't called back. I also have an appointment with a reproduction endocrinologist at Northwestern on March 11th to get a second opinion and see what other procedures are available to get rid of this thing. I most certainly don't want to continue this spotting or have this dull lower back pain. So frustrating.

Anyway, thank you for your response and feel free to write more about your situation, if you'd like. I like reading about other people's situations because it helps me come up with questions for the specialist.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

A