Forum on uterine fibroids opens door to more awareness

PHOTO | AALIYAH BOWDEN

Nikki LaShae (from left), Dr. Leslie  Hansen-Lindner, Dr. Kelley Rouse, and Tara Murphy at a uterine fibroids forum at The Daily Tavern.

Ladies’ night was done a little differently at an Uptown bar.

A small group of women gathered at The Daily Tavern to discuss the topic of uterine fibroids over drinks and appetizers. Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths that usually appear during a woman’s reproductive years, according to The Mayo Clinic. Tumors can range from the size of a marble to the size of a fist inside and outside of the uterus.

Most women will experience heavy bleeding during their menstrual cycle, pelvic pain, menstrual cycles lasting longer than seven days, and difficulty emptying the bladder.
“Typically speaking if you're saturating a napkin and a tampon once or twice an hour, that's considered abnormal,” said Dr. Kelley Rouse, an OB-GYN at Atrium Health in Charlotte.  

The first thing doctors suggest when a woman has fibroids is to either get a hysterectomy or get on birth control. But there are other options available that do not require undergoing a surgery that will prevent a woman from having children long term.

Host Nikki LaShae opened up about her battle with fibroids back in 2019.

“My cycle went from four to five days to about 12,” she explained. “I thought because it was very light, that it wasn't a big deal. I noticed when I filled my abdomen when I worked out, it was very hardened, and when I would lay on my stomach, it was uncomfortable because it felt like I was laying on something hard.”

One day LaShae was walking in Piedmont Park in Atlanta and was about to feed ducks when she started to experience intense pain. When she got home, the pain worsened.

“I collapsed on the floor,” she said. “I couldn't keep food down and I couldn't walk anymore and I was just in so much pain. I was crying and I had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. And turns out I had a ruptured cyst, and that is when I was diagnosed with fibroids.”

There are alternatives to women not having their uterus removed or a myomectomy, a surgery that removes only the fibroids.

The condition can be treated with a less invasive procedure. For instance, the Sonata Treatment, an incisionless procedure that uses radio frequency waves to remove the growth.  

“This radiofrequency energy disrupts the blood supply and it coagulates or heats up the tissue of the fibroid, which ultimately kind of destroys it and your body resorbs that abnormal tissue,” Rouse said. “So at large a fibroid becomes a small fibroid and your symptoms get better and you can conceive after it’s done.”

Ninety-five percent of patients who chose the Sonata Treatment saw a decrease in menstrual bleeding and half of patients returned to normal activity the next day. The treatment is offered in Charlotte.

At the event, women were able to mix and mingle with other ladies and share their stories and ask local physicians questions on uterine fibroids during the Q&A segment and afterwards.  

One woman from the crowd said she enjoyed the hour-long discussion. As a person who lives with the illness, she said she wished they spoke more in depth about the emotional, mental, and sexual side of fibroids.

“Knowing that you're carrying dead tissues, rather than a living body, a living soul within you,” said Dr. Shiricka Fair, CEO of Provisions Counseling and Consulting Services in Charlotte. “You're carrying something – the dead tissues that are infertile, rather than a child that's fertile. That psychologically impacts you.”  

Fair, 48, was diagnosed when she was 27. She has had to undergo two myomectomies, and a blood transfusion after developing anemia.

She no longer suffers from daily pain but is considering the minimum invasive treatment known as Acessa.   

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