UEA

I had it done almost 2 years ago at the age of 48. I was anemic and had very long, heavy periods I had to say I did that I could no longer live that way anymore. I had a really good experience and hardly experienced any pain. I spent one night in the hospital and then went home with some pain medicine. I stayed on the pain medicine in the hospital and at home and I think that is what helped me get through it. Everyone is a little different. I read a lot and spent time on this site to prepare myself for the worst. I am happy to say that my periods are no longer heavy, I am no longer anemic, and they are much lighter than before. I wish you the best!

Hi there,

I have now had the embolization procedure twice. First time was in 2016 when I was 35 and then again 2 weeks ago. The first time in 2016, I had a very rough recovery. I had a high fever for 2 weeks straight (and lots of pain) and the doctors thought I had an infection and I had to take a lot of antibiotics and also made a couple of trips to the ER to receive antibiotic through IV. At the end it turned out that everything was fine and my body was just reacting very intensely to my multiple huge fibroids dying. It took me a few weeks to get my strength back and not be in pain but the good news was that my 3 month MRI showed 70% shrinkage. I had a good 2 years before the fibroids came back and I decided to repeat the procedure. This time, it went a lot more smoothly (so far). I only had fever for 1 week and I was able to stop taking the strong painkillers after 4 days. It's been 2 weeks now and I feel at 90% back to normal. I do recommend the procedure. All the best to you.

I had UFE 4 months ago. My radiologist uses the plastic pellets and metal coils metal coils. He didn’t warn me that if I requested no medical coils he might not be able to treat some blood vessels so when I requested no coils I didn’t know- he didn’t tell me and they were two blood vessels that he didn’t treat at all. I didn’t have any pain at the hospital I had to stay overnight. My first period was terrible I wound up back in the hospital for heavy bleeding and had to be given bags of iv iron. So basically my procedure was what I call half done and I am deciding between hysterectomy or going back in with a different doctor and having them treat the other blood vessels. Even though I did research for a year, I didn’t know that not using the medical oils meant that some blood vessels might not be able to be treated. He should’ve been explained to me.

I hope they explain everything to you before-hand. Good luck.

My advice to anyone considering UAE is to just have a hysterectomy (unless, of course, you are wanting more kids). My uterus is giant because of my fibroid and my dr. said she would have to make a vertical incision to get it out. I decided to do UAE to see if we can shrink fibroid so can have a "c-section scar" hysterectomy so my recovery isn't as painful. I had procedure 2 weeks ago and I've never felt so sick in my life (pain, nausea, chills, high fever that put me in hospital for 3 days, god awful discharge, etc.) If I could have had a "normal" hysterctomy, I totally would have done that instead. Every day I wake up hoping it will be the day I feel better. Hasn't happened yet.