Glanced over some news feeds yesterday and noticed this headline under Yahoo! News | Uterine Fibroids:
Robot-assisted surgery removes fibroids but preserves women’s fertility
You know I love robots and other gizmos (because I’m a geek) so I had to click the link. The story revolves around Anna Crowder who needed a fibroid removed but still wanted to have a child.
From the article:
That’s where the robot – called the da Vinci Surgical System – comes in. The robot-assisted myomectomy combines the thoroughness of the traditional open myomectomy with a minimally invasive procedure, said Dr. Arnold Advincula, an associate professor of gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Read the article to find out more about Anna Crowder and this procedure:
Robot-assisted surgery removes fibroids but preserves women’s fertility
Information on the surgical system:
The da Vinci® Robotic Surgical System
View a video of the robot-assisted surgery:
Robotic Myomectomy Enables Treatment of Uterine Fibroids While Preserving Fertility
Pretty cool, huh?
——————–
Related Posts:
How are you feeling after your Laparoscopic Myomectomy?
How are you feeling after your Abdominal Myomectomy?
How are you feeling after your Abdominal Myomectomy (part 2)?
September 26, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Amy – Good luck to you! I’m assuming you want to keep your uterus… Just curious, have you gone into menopause yet/if so has that affected your fibroid symptoms?
I’d be interested to hear your story b/c all the information out there says that once you hit a “certain age” it makes no sense to have fibroids removed… and that hormonal changes will take care of things.
Even in my experience some doctors (not gyns) tried to talk me out of getting surgery, recommending that I just let the tumors sit. But Dr Jacoby thought that because of my age I was on a trajectory where they would just keep growing. I agree with your sentiment and am happy I didn’t put off getting it out…
Anyway I hope you can find a doctor to work with and get the result that you want…
September 27, 2009 at 11:38 am
RM Fan: I have gone into menopause but am on a low estrogen patch to combat some of those symptoms! Grrr… yet I didn’t take anything for a while and there was no change in the size of my fibroids… I think I’m still producing some estrogen on my own, so maybe over a long time they will shrink, but how long is that? And I don’t know how long I’m going to want/need to be on HRT! If one’s fibroids aren’t causing a lot of symptoms that is probably fine advice, but in my case, I have back pain that *may* be caused by the fibroids (surprisingly Dr. Jacoby said they don’t cause back pain, yet a lot of women here have claimed immediate relief after surgery!) there is also some incontinence, pain during sex, and of course I hate the big belly! I’m no longer bleeding profusely, but the endometrial ablation worked wonders for that.
It also really bugs me that even before the research came out against using hormone replacement therapy, doctors were telling women menopause would take care of everything, but I never heard the caveat about not being able to go on HRT. Given that some women took/take it for years, what good is waiting for menopause!
September 27, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Wow… so sorry to hear about all of that. I’m glad that you put your story out there… other women will benefit I’m sure.
Menopause is regularly touted as a fibroid cure-all… to the point where women like me (who are around 15-20 years from being menopausal) are advised by some docs to wait for it. Ok, in my case these docs were a urologist and an internal med practitioner, but I’m sure other women are being given similar advice. As a 35 yo who’s 6 days out from surgery I can wholeheartedly say that I am soooo glad I did it.
From the sounds of what you’re dealing with the “menopause cure-all theory” is not a universal truth. And I’ll bet a lot of women are suffering in silence.
I’ve read that menopause doesn’t guarantee shrinkage… just that growth will at least slow (or stop). So if you’re having troubling symptoms then you should have removal options. Period.
I really wish you the best of luck and that you find a doc who’ll work with you!!!
September 28, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Hi Everyone. I just wanted to give an update. I had the robotic myomectomy at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Dr. Garguilo) in Boston back in March 2009. As I posted a few months ago, the surgery was a total success. He was able to remove the fibroid in 4.5hours. It was 13cm. In any event, fast forward to today and I’m three months pregnant. We had to wait five months before trying and since I’m 36 years old, it seemed like an eternity to wait. So far everything is going well. Just wanted to post in case anyone is thinking about having the robotic surgery, in part to help with fertility. We tried to get pregnant for a year prior to the surgery.
Good luck to everyone!
February 2, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Thanks for the update! I had the laparoscopic myomectomy, the doctor didn’t need to use the robot because my fibroids were easy to remove (one pedunculated, 4 more that seemed to be just subserous) but I also had a hysteroscopic myomectomy, and I was told to wait a couple of months to try to get pregnant. I’m almost 41, so a couple of months are precious time! but hopefully I’m as lucky as you!