Studies examine risks, worth of treatment.(uterine artery embolization to treat uterine fibroids)

2002 DEC 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An increasingly popular treatment promises to rid women of painful, bleeding uterine fibroids without standard surgery's risks. But new research has some doctors questioning how long the treatment helps - and if it's too risky for women who hope to become pregnant.

Part of the problem is that this new "uterine artery embolization" has never been fully studied to see how it compares with uterine-sparing surgical removal of fibroids.

But the controversy highlights a bigger issue: "We really don't know very much at all about how to manage fibroids," said Dr. Evan Myers of Duke University - even though the uterine growths plague more than a million women a year and are the leading cause of hysterectomies.

Nearly 40% of women in their 30s and 40s develop fibroids, noncancerous growths of muscle fibers inside the uterus. No one knows what causes fibroids, and tiny ones usually cause no symptoms. But they can grow to cantaloupe size, causing severe pain, heavy bleeding and infertility or pregnancy complications.

More than 150,000 hysterectomies - surgical uterus removal - each year are due to fibroids.

For women who still want children, options are limited. Drugs shrink fibroids only temporarily. About 35,000 women a year undergo myomectomy, where surgeons remove fibroids while leaving the uterus intact. But it's painful, fibroids sometimes grow back, and women who later become pregnant usually require cesarean deliveries.

Uterine artery embolization, or UAE, is a far less invasive alternative. Doctors squirt tiny plastic pellets into certain uterine arteries, cutting off the blood supply feeding the fibroids. Over the next 3 months to a year, the fibroids shrink.