How can uterine fibroids be treated conservatively?

  Uterine fibroids are a very common disease in young women, and according to the results of 700,000 female medical examinations in China, 30% of women are diagnosed with fibroids in their lifetime.  Uterine fibroids are usually asymptomatic when they are small and are often detected during medical checkups. When they gradually increase in size, they may cause symptoms such as excessive menstruation, disorders, frequent urination, and difficulty in passing stools, and may also affect fertility, leading to infertility or pain during pregnancy and miscarriage.  Uterine fibroids have also become a reason for many women to undergo gynecological surgery, and one of the most common reasons for hysterectomy is uterine fibroids. Although most fibroid surgery can now be performed through minimally invasive procedures such as laparoscopy and hysteroscopy, as a procedure itself, it is still not preferred by many fibroid patients.  Focused ultrasound therapy for uterine fibroids is a non-invasive treatment option that works somewhat like a sun spot, unlike a sun spot that gathers light, the machine gathers up ultrasound, which locally heats the tissue to a high temperature of over 65 degrees at the focal point, playing the role of ablating the tumor, with no damage in the channel and no scars on the skin because the energy in the channel does not reach the energy of the target. It will not leave scars on the skin. The treatment process is less traumatic, quick recovery, and the patient can even get up and down from the bed immediately after the operation without being restricted like surgery.  This is a new technology, but it has been used clinically for about 10 years, but it is not yet available in every hospital due to the limitation of expensive equipment. Uterine fibroid treatment time depends on the size, number and extent of the lesions. Generally speaking, ablation of fibroids can be done in 0.5 to 3 hours at a time, requiring only one day of hospitalization and one week after discharge from the hospital. Compared to surgery, the most important feature of ultrasound treatment is its non-invasive nature, less invasive than laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery, and no scars to worry about. Usually, 3-6 months after the treatment, the fibroids will gradually shrink, usually up to about 50% of the volume, and most patients can obtain improvement of their symptoms.  The disadvantage of this treatment is that pathological results cannot be obtained, so it is not suitable if malignancy is suspected, and the removal of fibroids is not as complete as surgery, and the chance of recurrence is greater than surgery.  Focused ultrasound can be used for the treatment of uterine fibroids as well as myometriosis. From our clinical data, 90% of the patients have relief from dysmenorrhea after treatment, and the pain score VAS score can be decreased by about 3-4 points after 3 months.  As the evaluation before focused ultrasound treatment is different from the surgery, we usually require each patient to undergo MRI and evaluation before the procedure to know whether the fibroids and myometriosis are suitable for this non-invasive technique.