Fibroids are the new black
Learn more about fibroids: Fibroid FAQ
I am recovering from an addiction to Percocet and reality TV. Percocet and reality TV. Both addictions are the result of an operation I had six weeks ago to remove a fibroid from my uterus.
“Take it out,” I said instantly. The tumour of errant cells had grown in two months from an orange to a grapefruit, as the doctor described it. More likely, it had gone from a grape to a plum to a peach: at 42, the only fruit of my loins. It was responsible for periods so awash in blood that my bathroom looked like a set from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre two days a month. I actually had to take hemophilia drugs to control it. My gynecologist, Mark Yudin, couldn’t biopsy it without removing it. And I wanted it biopsied, even though the chances of it being malignant were, like, 0.01 per cent.
A girl can never close her options
Dr. Yudin, an excellent surgeon with a warm smile, was also required to inform me that a hysterectomy was a less risky operation than a myomectomy, in which the abdomen is cut open, the uterus cut open, the fibroid cut out, the uterus stitched up and then the abdomen closed up again. But I didn’t want a hysterectomy. My generation of feminists (between Steinem and Wolf) knows that unnecessary hysterectomies are the embodiment of medical sexism. My uterus was there for a reason. Other organs probably leaned on it if nothing else. Admittedly, I have never been preoccupied with reproducing, but maybe Leonardo DiCaprio might become available. Geena Davis had her twins at 48. A girl can just never close her options.
It seems fibroids are the new black, especially amongst my fortyish friends. Cathy had a hysterectomy last year for one the size of a football (or should I say melon?). Mary, 50, is getting one removed vaginally (hysteroscopy) this year. My pregnant cousin has one growing beside her baby, being fed by the increased estrogen. Fibroids are fed by estrogen. Women in their forties experience fluctuations in their hormone levels and estrogen may decline as menopause approaches. So what is feeding the fibroid?
