Large fibroid - experiments with alternative therapies - unconclusive

Posted , 7 users are following.

This is extremely long and doesn't actually give any useful reference yet.

Hello,

I am 40 yo and was diagnosed with a tiny uterin fibroid when I was 27, however it wasn't till I was 31 that it grew in what seemed a short period of time, to reach the size of 14cm/9cm/9cm . It was the same fibroid which they had found 5 years before), but it had just grew as one big lump - there are no others in the womb. It is so large that they cannot see where it is attached. It causes no pain. Causes heavy bleeding but herbal medicine and healing are semi-controlling that since a few months.

So I wondered what was happening during that drastic period where I lived an idyllic life, when it grew.

I was going through a very upsetting and stressful relationship by which I felt trapped - we didn't get on sexually after the initial period , yet I was eating mostly organic food, and lived a very healthy, life in the deep countryside (so, pollution wasn't a problem). Is it the stress of those few months relationship that grew it to that size? Or is it due to my childhood? Or is it that there is family recurrence with fibroids? Or is it both? I will never know.

I am very slim, small framed woman (an 8 but 10 with the fibroid) and this fibroid makes me look 6 months pregnant. My partner is very encouraging and tells me i am beautiful despite Lucy(it's how we called "her") and my skin problems ...and it is so lovely to have someone like that . Of course, I do not believe a word he says ( he obviously says it "by pity") and I think instead of myself to be "demodee", now I have lost my only value in life, my body.

Since the fibroid grew so large, I did my best to try absolutely everything I could try to cure it.

Homeopathy. One of the most renowned doctors of the school of homeopathy in York. I followed him for a good year, gave me varied things. No effect. He was really really surprised and wanted me to carry on but my wallet and I lost faith.

I went back to my old classical homeopath who has now treated me for 2 years with remedies, this has not really done it (yet) and as it cost a lot and I couldn't take anything else at the same time I had to stop. It perhaps is still working.

Herbal treatment. I have followed all the advice on the internet. Eaten a lot of pineapple, (hello, mouth sores!) unripe papayas, silk-worm extract (serrapeptase: an enzyme to "eat up the fibroids" till it started eating up my stomach) then there was a very expensive pill you can buy on the internet from the USA at about £89 for a month worth of various herbal extract + £££ postage. No obvious 3 month results. I carried on for 6. The pills were repeating on my stomach by the end and l threw them out. I have also tried boron intake, supplementing with everything I could read that would improve the flow to the pelvis, copper detox (the metal copper is accused of being able to make fibroids grow if too much in the water - In fact, the water was very sour and the pipes copper when it grew– could be coincidence.) The real herbal treatment I am now following is quite drastic, it involves an intense treatment of herbal tea.

The herbal tea is of Nettle, Dandelion root (untoasted), Cleavers, and Yarrow. As I also suffer from bad circulation, another few herbs were added like Gingko and hawthorn. I was to drink 5 mugs a day of this tea. I have done that since last August. It is now ...March. 9 months? Not much sign of any change yet other than vaguely more controlled bleeding which is positive. The other minor health problems due to circulation have not improved yet. Nor have all the skin tags and red moles that have appeared with the fibroid. Also, now I am starting to give the herbal tea up. The taste of the mixed-up yarrow makes me want to vomit. I can't throw it away so started having fresh nettle and cleaver tea instead, but I am growing spots so it can't be good like the old one.

Healing. I have done so much emotional healing in private therapy and started touching at all the causes that could trigger such a large, non-malignant growth, to happen, if such things were created by our thoughts or memories like the new-age books tell us.

Childhood rape and incest - yes. Bullying at school.Yes. Bullying in the family. Yes. There were the odd mental issue too. But only them knew that.

The sex industry is also a culprit for fibroid growth? Yes. Running away from committing to relationships? Yes. History of sexual abuse in the family other than your own? Yes. Giving yourself to sex too easily? Yes. (I thought it was the only way to keep a boyfriend when I was younger- so to show them I would do a good wife. But it never works. I end up falling out with them.)

Stress now in your personal life? Well, like all of us. We are all stressed and have anxious thoughts for most of the day, and if they are not anxious thoughts, they are negative, they judge others or ourselves, they tell us that we are victims, they tell us this person looking at you over there thinks we are very ugly indeed. Or we fear that they want to use us for sex, or beat us up.

So, as responsible adults, we work on those old emotions to cleanse them out of us so we can be given another 50 years of graceful and elegant life. We go and see therapists in the hope someone will create a miracle for us. We trust all this will help, us inside and someone outside, as what else is our bodies but a reflection of our minds? Introversion, always.

My boyfriend tells me to stop looking inside so much, to look outside. How beautiful a life there is to live. How he doesn't care about my ailments.

I tell him I don't want to be outside, it is full of suffering. Suffering is what I see inside, and I certainly don't want to face the worse world outside that is will add more overwhelming suffering to my own which I can't process already.

Maybe I have gone mad and there is no fibroid at all and I am just a memory of my life, that I keep reliving the same way, not managing to change its direction because I am asleep. “lt is only by imagining the disease gone that we can manifest it”, say the new age gurus who also die of cancer.

Two years ago, I went through a phase of believing in momentum healing (healing in the moment - cost me a lot in therapists to discover what I could "perhaps" find in me, still not found it) so I did some spontaneous healing in my head and thought of sexual organs healing and flowing and LIFE in me ... All beautiful light thoughts. I was in the street when it happened. I felt my belly and could not feel the lump. Pressed, and found no lump. I had to stop walking to feel my belly that was suddenly so flat! I felt such intense joy! Maybe it was my boyfriend having sent healing too! But the fibroid came back an hour later. The whole event actually scared me. Before it happened, I had been doing breathing into my cervix/uterus exercise for a while, which my boyfriend had advised me to do, as well as I should be sending beautiful love to my uterus. (Why the hell should I be sending it love! It is being a pain in the neck!) so I never dared do that again in case I spontaneously healed and it lead to complications. (now you open a can of worms). What would I do without my physical unhappiness to show everyone how unhappy I truly was? What if I was not powerful enough to grow all those conditions anyway and it was nothing about unhappiness?

Today, my situation is - there is no change really, the fibroid and I plod along. All the plants, the healing, and they had said last year the ultrasound scan gave .93 mm in reduction that the MRI had given previously , and that there was some fluid in the abdomen. Then, she told me the fibroid was degenerating, according to the MRI scan they had done a year and a half ago. (they hadn't told me that at the time,maybe he didn't want to have to explain what degenerating meant to a foreigner who's not even from his country.). She explained what degenerating meant. She said as long as there wasn't sudden or large amounts of continuuous bleeding, that it didn't smell awful or cause pain, then it was fine to let it be. I was grateful she said that, she was very calming lovely, from another countrily country like me.

I am due another ultrasound this year some time. My periods have changed a bit over the year. It takes about 12 h of heavy bleeding, (I mean heavy) then 7-8 days of proper blood, 12 days to see the last trace of blood, then discharges a thick mucus that is pinkish at first and then yellow-ish, then it liquifies at what should be ovulation, then there was nothing till the next periods much.

However, last month there was a drastic NEWS. It will probably never happen again, because I am so used to those long, grey, dark bleeding days and thinking I haven't got long to live anyway so why bother. (I know, you don't want to be my friend) I am used to the " nothing will ever improve", whatever new miracle therapy I start with great lucky faith. (anything new always works for at least 3 days. After that, everything returns to normal)

However, that month, I did something I had never done in my entire life: spent a whole 2 nights and one day IN BED*!!! l didn't do anything, except go outside five minutes, and eat some diner in nice company. I have also been listening a lot to Edgar Tolle's teachings. Being in the moment and all that. Talked a lot about it with another friend and felt good connections. Lots of good hope, I felt like I was improving. Also, as soon as the periods started, I said to myself , "As the blood starts, l am going to consciously give myself an easier time, I will be kinder to myself, not work so hard, and take moments to rest, without obnoxious thoughts in the way. " (I was being inspired...)

So, when the periods arrived, on the spot, (and they were late....) of course I couldn't rest. I had to drive back home, get all my heavy and bulky stock out of the car, tidy up the messy lounge,then the kitchen, feed the dogs, then forgot I didn't have any food in the fridge.... Despite all that, I still sat down 5 minutes, and told my body: “You see, I listen. I am giving you 5 minutes of sympathy. I am with you and I hear you and your pain. I am sorry I work so hard, it is to provide us with a roof when we are really old. I love you, but if we don't work hard we will not get to the place where we can relax again, and think about our life, ponder about it looking over the valley and wondering what we could have done differently. We want our old age to be gentle and restful, as we have not been able to do that in our lives. Please, forgive me" ...

This is what I told my body during its 5 minutes rest.

So... this month...my period... was so much shorter that at day 5, it was really tiny, and at day 7, I was able to share love again; of course, the blood came back on day 8 or 9 (normally that had become the day 11/12) and the same (just about) pattern till the ovulation.

However, since those good news, I have really turned mentally. It started with food poisoning which gave me rotten guts for a week. My mind went foul then.

All that period of fluffy fairies and niceness lived before... It now felt as if something had got the darker side out of me. The one that wants to destroy who I is, destroy the chances of this life to be good. You know, the one that the paranoids of this world believe "lives in their heads". Those last few days, has been dark inside. Everything got worse physically and mentally. I cannot see any joy nor light. I fall out with my friends, with my boyfriend. Even with the dogs. And the Boss? a threatening message on my answerphone. I keep wondering, what am I doing to myself. What, is this body still growing that fibroid? Could it not just stop calling for help?

I wonder, what is the point to this life. What will I have brought others. How much am I going to suffer in my old age when I will have tennis elbows and no-knees, no strength in my wrists, my back is broken from the hard work, I have no hips, and my teeth have all fallen out? And I have Alzeimers as well? Or MS? Or the latest bloody deadly debilitating disease is haunting our bad-news papers and our aged pensioners?

What good will that be, to work so hard, to reach that stage and be comfortable - in some nice asyllum? - Any idiot would see the sense in this.

However, parts of me still want to fight back at happiness, to work so hard, make it so big, that I will be dead in 10 years anyway. Not from a fibroid but of a heart attack. Work hard, just keep working hard and then I will get a nice long holiday from existence. (says whatever is our ego)

Among that stress, physical and mental, the skin condition came back in a huge wave that had not been seen for a year because of all the (other) herbal therapy I had been doing. Then... that same day, flees bit me twice in 12h. ( l was only too pleased that it was not the sacrum herpes[...]) The sacrum herpes came back, straight and beautiful on the bone, the next day, as by enchantment.

Then the cycle changes... as all the physical erupts, I make up with my boyfriend. My neighbour has been extremely pleasant to me. A car that passed me in the lane as I had gone in the hedge for them, wave. A customer tells me a pleasant story, or complimented me on something personal. A car let me pass in the lane . See, lots of little miracles start happening again. It starts lifting the cr*p off that had just fallen off the sky. Either that or I start noticing the good in my life again.

The fibroid? I don't know. Sometimes I like to blame my family. It's their blo**y fibroid (litterrally)

Am I to blame for my life? Have I grown a monster of myself? Is it just showing me that if I keep on like I do, whatever I am doing wrong, Life will punish me like the good religious-grown cult tell me that I will end as anyway? Whatever I choose I will always be suffering? At every moment? To show my love to g*d?

The BOOK said to keep myself humble, not ask for help, and die in the ditch. Did that. Well, nearly. It doesn't bring heaven. Should I be suffering more? Or should I just rob this body and impose my saintly views onto an innocent child? (and I thought it was my neighbour) .

AH, to be happy and allowed to remember that, between the moments of sad that life carries within us, are those intense and long lasting moments of joy and happiness to remember.

If anything happens and I find this forum again (anything positive) I will let you know.

0 likes, 21 replies

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  • Posted

    Hi, thanks for sharing your story. I will tell you, I also have a large fibroid and am old with no supportive husband. I feel like an anomaly. Everyone seems to have something in their life going for them, boyfriend/husband, kids, money, youth. I have none of those things despite working my ass off all my life and being a good person. I will tell you I tried all sorts of natural treatments for my fibroid which also had a growth spurt since I hit perimenopause and my hormones went nuts. And honestly I think they all made it grow more and def didn't help. I think when a fibroid gets that big you have to do something more drastic. I also look pregnant and used to be thin and don't eat much and do eat healthy. I'm looking into a newer treatment called Acessa but need my insurance to cover it. Other options you could look at are myomectomy or embolization, but I'm sure you knew that. I'm looking into the newer treatment because being single I don't have anyone to care for me after a major surgery and can't take that amount of time off work. Hoping I can do the new treatment as very little down time. Hang in there!

    • Posted

      You have a difficult situation, I feel for you. Do you think you could work a bit less hard and give yourself some time? I find it really hard. But when I do it seems that miracles could happen, however loving myself is the hardest thing to do in the world. Not sure if that is causing the fibroid...

    • Posted

      yes I have a large fibroid and seeing hosp dr next week. I am 63 and have a husband at home but still dont want a hysterectomy as that seems what they offered me 5 years ago..and i got through the thick lining then and polyps, 3 taken out...i am just hoping they give me meds

      at least start and shrink it first

  • Posted

    I feel sorry for you. All this time and money wasted. Fibroids are tumors. Like cancer. Nothing you are to blame for or your childhood. They are so frequent in the female world population it is impossible to say all these millions of women share anything other than a uterus. Different lives, different diets, different levels of stress, different relationship status, different sex lives.... Yet we all have fibroids.

    Please do yourself a favour. You are incredibly fortunate that you have one only. I had 15. One fibroid can be taken out. Where is it? Submucosal? (They can do a resection without even having to cut) Intramural? (lots of options there). I had a friend with one huge fibroid, they took it out, her life is back.

    Give yourself your life back.

    PS All these natural treatments can be truly dangerous.

    • Posted

      Thank you Tracy for your feedback, I have only one but they said it would be really difficult to take it out, as they don't know how it sits and they don't know what is affected as it is so large - they have no clue where it is located.

      An operation could be dangerous and would involve taking everything out. I am not ready to go through that - I still have menaupose to go and that gives my uterus a chance to let go of it if it isn't using it as a storage place for rubbish .

      I am willing to work on myself, to help the female group of the world like a drop in the ocean, to respect myself more and rest more. We are one with our bodies in this life. If we try and treat things just with diets and supplements/drugs, we are only changing the environment, not what creates the environment in the first place. We all know that stress impairs first:

      1. Sexual organs
      2. Digestive system
      3. immunity.

        It is what goes when we feel anxious or depressed or fearful, etc. I am in that state all the time, at a lower level usually but always so. Even when I sleep I don't switch off my mind is still alert and ruminating. I am bound to be behaving in a way, in this life, which triggers the body's stress response and shuts down its ability to deal with this constant stress. I never rest, if I am at home I am working or doing something, at work I work really hard and never take breaks or rest. If we work logically, plants don't work, homeopathy doesn't work; well, am I so invincible that things that make others lives better and sometimes healed, wouldn't work on me? Why would I be so special? Because I get in my own way. From what I wrote I can see I "don't want to" be happy. That belief would bring in behaviours that are self destructive. In the meantime, the fibroid grows and grows. I mean, why some of us have lots of tiny fibroids, why others just a few little or large ones, and some of us one big one , starring us in the nose?

        It may not work, and I may end up down the hospital with a knife on my belly in a few months/years and hopefully with someone who knows how to do it, but there is a remote possibility that this Lucy may well want to go home on her own, if maybe I give her a chance to breathe, and make that little effort to show myself more respect.

        We all do the best we can for ourselves unless we are following a self-destructive subconscious scheme. I wish for you out there who have that mental difficulty that something in you regrows to show you a different, kind and balanced path , of being a woman.

        I hope you get yours sorted out and get your life back Tracy, and tell us how the operation goes if you go ahead.

        I think I am fortunate indeed to only have one, it feels quite special, like seeing a mirror image.

        PS yes I am bothered about the amount of money I spent on therapy, and it may not have healed me, but in times of clarity it gives me a strong ground to feel balanced on (till it all tips over the bloody edge)

    • Posted

      I understand.

      Have they done an MRI to see where and how it stands? An MRI would show.

    • Posted

      Hello,

      yes they had done an mri and they couldn't see where it was attached or anything . It is fine, I will live with it, as long as nothing gets worse, it is really ok to live with such a big weight in me.

      I will let you know if something happens. I have read on another forum a lady with 2 enormous ones who gave birth (ok, different scenario) and the firboids didn't diminish in a year, and was said to be degenerating because of the cut-off blood supply, but she bled solid for 9 months, doctors had given her drugs to stop bleeding with no result, and 3 years later, the fibroid has gone calcified, but is the size of a pea!!!

      The degeneration actually got the result of her womb being healed miraculously! She is fine now! Isn't it great? It is the first time I read on the internet of someone with large degenerating fibroids that actually shrink back to nothing! A success story, at last! I want mine to be one too...

    • Posted

      and yours to be one too if you want it and it is possible, even remotely so!

  • Posted

    I have empathy for you. I know what it's like to live with large uncomfortable fibroids

    Is it possible to do an embolization?

    Though they can't see much in the womb are they able to see the main uterine artery and perform a UAE ?

    It seems you will be forced to make a decision by this damn fibroid soon. It's better if you run towards your own choice rather than the fibroid making the choice for you.

    Remember that no matter how bad things are now they can and will most likely get worse with this fibroid...so today is actually a good day to take charge of this.

    I would not continue to live with this thing or give it my emotional attention.

    I'm against hysterectomies (except for cancer) but if the fibroid is so large, causing big problems, and can be treated no other way then I would consider a hysterectomy.

    Very best of luck to you. Thank you for sharing. I see some similarities in our stories so I do understand your situation. I hope you're able to get a resolution soon.

  • Posted

    I will see what they can offer next time I see them, but the only solution the guy had said was removal of the whole womb - no other solution with the size of this one!

    As I said, I am uncomfortable at times (I have to do special breathing exercises to help ) but it is not life threatening so I will carry on with what I am doing and wait till menopause which is not going to be too long now. Hopefully. If it doesn't reduce at menaupose then I will consider having everything taken out.

    Yes, absolutely, I still have hope. My body grew it, and now it is trying to dispose of it, so I have to give it best help. I feel on the right path, it may not happen, but if it does I will certainly post back!

    All the best to you also.

  • Posted

    Hi, how big is the fibroid? I have had similar experiences. Wasted money on natural treatments that only made it GROW. You don't have it because you didn't eat organic or do enough soul searching. That is bull. I have been Paleo for over 20 years and gluten-free, organic etc. Makes no difference. I have friends that are obese, eat garbage and have perfect ovaries, etc. no fibroids.

    That being said I am currently looking into a new procedure, acessa. I'm trying to get insurance coverage which is the hard part. Might be worth a shot for you.

    • Posted

      AH, now that is interesting of you Sakura to say about being Paleo and gluten free and organic, because it is what I have been doing since before it started growing too. And so interesting other people eating rubbish don't get any genital problems!!! Odd isn't it. Makes me think there is something else at work, now your diet experience does confirm that.

      My fibroid was 13cm by 9 and 9, something like that. Of course, if I eat sugar it looks twice as big because I am bloated as well as it popping out!!! So if I want to feel thin (despite being very thin framed lady) i have to avoid eating rubbish that makes the intestines swell up!!! haha.

      I will look at Acessa on Google, never heard of it. I have a new idea to try is "breathing" because I have also bad circulation and very bad chilblains, came across an interesting technic that involves cold water and breathing in certain ways. Particularly breathing into the uterus which whenever it has felt smaller , I had done a bit of uterus breathing. It is worth a go, it is all quite good fun anyway. I am such a wimp with cold weather, if I could strenghen and not be so scared of dying of thermal whatever, it would be rather good...

  • Posted

    Alexandra,

    Thank you for replying.

    After rereading your post regarding the actual dimensions of your fibroid, I'm a little lost.

    I'm in the US so translating cm. to inches isn't something that comes automatically for me.

    I did however google the size of your fibroid (you said 13x9x9 cm)

    That's roughly 6 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches

    I'm reaalllllyyyy confused here. Why would that be considered a very big fibroid?

    How are the doctors not able to manage such a relatively small issue???

    I had multiple fibroids...I couldn't say the actual size of each one but when I was diagnosed, the gynecologist called them "apples' or "plums" in references to their size...and there were many. My uterus was at least twice the size of yours...if not 3 times the size of yours.

    I had a UFE 6 months ago and I'm having very good results in terms of shrinkage...my uterus is still enlarged but MUCH better than what it was...

    Do you think the problem might be that you're going to doctors who aren't skilled and are underqualified? Is it possible that all they know is how to do hysterectomies so they're pushing that on you as an only option and making you think that you're some sort of rare bird with a major/unusual issue?

    • Posted

      Hello,

      I have been to the NHS here in the UK which is a very good service. They have accurate machines and qualified staff but I may be misremembering the size of the fibroid, the doctor/gynecologist in charge of all the nurses at the hospital said he had not seen any patients yet with such large, lone fibroid before, and so said the nurses.

      I look about 6 months pregnant at the moment. It is about the size of a melon, and because I am very thin it shows up like a terror.

      My waist size used to be a 24 inch waist and is now a ...let me get the tape measure... in inches... a bit more than 30 and a quarter inches. ("hahaha to you" say the larger waist-ed ladies who were jealous of my waist line....)

      I don't think there exists any unqualified doctors here in the UK. I could go private but it would cost thousands and I am not that bothered at the moment, it is just being a pest and ruins my looks, that is all, other than the large amount of period blood loss of course. And the breathing but I am going to remedy that.

      I am really glad to hear the treatment you are doing is working, it is super! I hope it carries on doing well, and that you are feeling peaceful about it in yourself. If I could be bothered I would upload a photo of my fibroid when I am lying down. It looks quite scary. If I was a man I would not go near me, however it seems it doesn't bother the gent in question. 😃

    • Posted

      Alexandra, I too am with the UK NHS. There are no unqualified doctors, but there are doctors without experience in alternative treatments and doctors with their own convictions. The first hospital I was referred to offered me nothing apart from a hysterectomy. That was all there was on the menu. A consultant there actually looked me in the eye and said: "I loooove hysterectomies". I thought I was in some kind of sitcom episode. I insisted on being transferred to another hospital I knew had a dedicated department and offered more alternatives. That's where I had my UFE. Afterwards I have had post-op complications (infection of the dead fibroids, 3 hospital admissions) and the post-op care was not what I expected so once again I changed hospital to a third option where I am being offered brilliant care. So you have to make your own decisions, get a second and a third opinion and never allow the system to tell you "this is the end of the road".

      My experience:

      I had multiple fibroids in all locations, dominant was 10cm but if you add the medium size ones of 5 cm, 3 cm, etc, the overall volume was huge. I had my UFE three months ago. My belly is as flat now as when I was 20 years old, lying and standing. There is absolutely nothing there. MRI shows a shrinkage of 60% and that's only 3 months after (peak shrinkage is at six months, so I expect to lose even more volume). The fibroids are all dead. I expelled a whole fibroid. The big one is now a small lump of dead tissue which will come out, either naturally or they will take it out vaginally (no operation needed). My bladder is no longer squashed and has tripled in volume (visible in MRI), the other day I went six hours without needing to pee. My latest period has been painless and instead of two pads every hours I have needed two pads a day. My haemoglobin is up, colour has returned to my cheeks, I feel like I haven't felt in years, life is beautiful, I realise now that I had become a walking corpse. I got so used to feeling like s**t I thought that's what being middle-age feels like. But it doesn't, it shouldn't. The post-op has been tough because of the complications, and it's not yet over, but I am already a new woman. And I still have my uterus.

    • Posted

      Tracy,

      It is poignant and touching to read what you went through, thank you so much for sharing it, it is wonderful that you have had this change happen in you! So good to read everything that has got better since! So, it is possible to pass dead fibroid tissue by the vagina! It sounds gross but really exciting it is possible.

      And you have a flat belly again!!!

      (I really want mine back!!!! )

      And colour to your cheeks!

      You know, reading how many pads you use, I realise that maybe I am not losing that much blood after all despite the huge size of the fibroid for Herefordshire, and the anemia. At the worst period day, usually the 2d one, I use maybe 2 huge night pads during the day. I don't know how it works for others, but the blood also comes out in a large amount once or twice during a trip to the toilet, which must happen every 2 hours.

      Which hospital did you get refered to? THe one I went to had said that even in the MRI scan they could not see where the fibroid was attached because it was so squashed they just couldn't tell. I don't know if another better hospital could see any better?

      THank you again for your positive sharing of your experience (and gross consultant who told you he/she loved hysterectomies!!! )

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