If you have uterine fibroids, you already know what a bad period feels like.
Switching outfits twice before 10 a.m. Packing extra supplies just to leave the house. Texting to reschedule the meeting you had been building toward for two weeks.
By noon, you’re back on the couch, heating pad on your abdomen, running through the mental math of how many more days this will last.
If that morning sounds familiar, you are not alone – and you are not out of options.
Millions of women live with uterine fibroids, and heavy, disruptive bleeding is one of the most common and exhausting symptoms. But there is a minimally invasive procedure that stops the bleeding, shrinks the fibroids, and lets you get your life back – no hysterectomy required.
Fibroids and the Symptoms That Follow
Fibroids cause more than heavy periods. The bleeding, fatigue, pelvic pressure, and pain add up fast – and they affect everything from your workday to your weekend plans.
Soaking through protection in under an hour, bleeding between cycles, dreading the start of every month – none of that is normal, and none of it is something you have to keep managing on your own.
What Are Uterine Fibroids?
Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the uterus. They range in size from a small seed to several inches across, and some women develop multiple fibroids at once.
They are far more common than most people realize, but despite this, fibroids often go undiagnosed for years – especially when symptoms are dismissed as “just a bad period.”
You Don't Need a Hysterectomy
For a long time, hysterectomy (surgical removal of the uterus) was treated as the standard solution for fibroids that caused significant symptoms. For some women, that may still be the right path. But it is not the only path, and many women are never told there are other options.
Myomectomy removes the fibroids while leaving the uterus intact, but it is still a surgical procedure with a longer recovery. For women who want a faster return to normal life and want to avoid an operating room altogether, there is a better option.
Uterine Fibroid Embolization, or UFE, treats fibroids from the inside – with no incision, no hospital stay, and no removal of any reproductive organs.
How Uterine Fibroid Embolization Works
UFE is performed by an interventional radiologist, a specialist trained in minimally invasive, image-guided procedures. The process is precise, targeted, and designed to go straight to the source of the problem.
Here’s how it works:
The procedure is outpatient, patients go home the same day. Recovery typically runs one to two weeks, which is significantly shorter than the four to six weeks common with hysterectomy or myomectomy. No general anesthesia required, and covered by most major insurance providers.
What to Expect After UFE Treatment
The most immediate thing women notice after UFE is a dramatic reduction in bleeding.
- Periods become lighter, shorter, and manageable.
- Pelvic pressure improves as the fibroids decrease in size.
- Fatigue – which is often tied to the chronic blood loss fibroids cause – begins to lift.
And practically speaking, the mental load changes too. You stop planning your life around your cycle. You stop calculating how far you are from a restroom. You stop canceling things.
Because UFE preserves the uterus, it also keeps future options open for women who may want to become pregnant. Results vary, and it is worth discussing your full reproductive history with your physician during a consultation – but uterus preservation is one of the key reasons many women choose UFE over surgical alternatives.
Read: 5 Reasons More Women Are Choosing Uterine Fibroid Embolization Over Surgery
Ready to Talk About Your Options?
Heavy periods and fibroid symptoms are not something you have to manage forever. Help is available at ECCO Medical, with locations in Lone Tree and Pueblo, Colorado.
If you are ready to find out whether UFE is right for you, our team can walk you through the process and answer your questions at a consultation.
Visit us online or call 303-529-9616 to schedule.
