KCET - Life and Times
Going overseas for medical care.
The statistic is staggering. One out of four women in America will suffer from fibroids. Until recently, this also meant one out of four women would be facing a significant hospital stay. With traditional fibroid surgeries involving weeks of bed-rest and recovery time, many women simply opted to endure pain, heavy bleeding, and a nagging concern about their general well being. Thanks to embolization, a patient-friendly, minimally -invasive procedure, the question of how to get help, without getting stuck in the hospital, is finally under control.
Embolization, which features safe, non-surgical fibroid reduction, is not a new or untried procedure. Over 15,000 patients in the U.S. alone have found relief with this method. A tiny incision, made in the upper thigh, is the only cutting involved. The rest of the procedure involves the injection of tiny particles into blood vessels that feed the fibroid. The fibroid, denied nutrients, starves and shrinks.
Aside from avoiding the risks and complications of major surgery, embolization takes less than an hour. Most patients are fully recovered in about 5 days. This blissfully fast method of treatment has several benefits. It keeps hospital costs down and eliminates the need for patients to be away from work and family for prolonged periods. Physical recovery is so minimal, women are usually back on their feet after a long weekend.
“This really improved my quality of life in immeasurable ways” embolization patient Beth Baugher of Sacramento said when discussing a recent procedure, “what a huge difference having fibroids out of my life.” Another patient noted the extremely quick recovery time allowed them to tackle a problem they “had been avoiding for years.”
While embolization is not appropriate for every patient, it is rapidly becoming a first choice treatment as more and more women are made aware of the option. The ability to live symptom-free without surgery is a strong incentive, but patients also deeply appreciate the time it won’t take out of a busy schedule. For thousands of women all over the country ‘The 5 Day Fibroid Treatment’ is more than a good description, it’s great news.