Deciding which treatment is right for you will require having open and frank discussions with your healthcare provider - and often with your family and friends, as well. You may want to get a second medical opinion to help you explore different treatment approaches and gain additional perspective. Every woman tolerates discomfort or pain, uncertainty or inconvenience differently. Each has different hopes and expectations for the future. So as you explore your options, be sure to take some quiet moments to ask yourself questions like the following:
1) What medicines can I take to relieve the pain caused by my fibroids?
2) How old are you? Are you approaching or in menopause, which makes it likely that symptoms may soon go away on their own?
3) Do you plan to have children? Or are you finished with childbearing?
4) What are your symptoms like? Are they mild and tolerable? Moderate and uncomfortable? Severe and disabling?
5) Are your symptoms bad enough to outweigh the side effects and risks of medication or surgery?
6) Do you feel comfortable with the information and recommendations you're getting from your healthcare provider? Do you have unanswered questions and concerns?
7) If you are being advised to have a hysterectomy, how does that make you feel? Do you feel that other less-invasive options have been fully explored?
8) What do you want most from treatment? Symptom relief no matter what? Symptom relief that still preserves your fertility - or that preserves your uterus even if you have no plans for children?
9) What is your lifestyle like? How will the various treatment options you're considering affect it?
You may want to download and print out this
list of questions (PDF: 18Kb)
and keep it with you to help keep track of your priorities, your questions and your feelings.
