Uterus swelled up fast, from 14 weeks to 18 weeks' size, almost immediately after UFE

Here’s a stumper: 48 hours after UFE, my uterus swelled up quickly and dramatically enough to irritate my bowel. It felt like I’d gone from looking almost four months pregnant to at least five. A CT scan one week after UFE showed that necrosis was underway for the two subserosal lunkers (each measuring over 10 cm. on the pre-UFE MRI) that featured most prominently on the scan, and the doctors who assessed it assured me that the inflammation would resolve itself.  

That was 4.5 weeks ago - the UFE itself was 39 days ago - and while the swelling did go down some, it’s far from gone. This week, according to the gynecologist, my 14-week pre-UFE uterus is now 18 weeks in size. The radiologist hasn’t seen this reaction before and admits that he’s stumped.

Have any of you experienced long-lasting fibroid inflammation, post UFE? In searching online forums, I haven’t seen many references to it. The gynecologist says that if it gets worse between now (5.5 weeks post-UFE) and 6-7 weeks from now, some kind of surgery will be in order. However, if the uterus has neither grown nor shrunk, watching and waiting will be fine.

More background on me, in case it’s useful:

Age: 51. Previous surgeries: none. Pregnancies: none. Vaguely perimenopausal, but no evidence of menopause on the horizon yet. Numerous fibroids of various types, with at least 2-3 especially large ones. As the radiologist put it, my fibroid load is “large.” Like me, both my mother and her mother developed multiple, big fibroids in their late thirties. I’m short-waisted, so as the fibroids grew, a real estate crunch developed in my abdomen. No pain, just bulk symptoms, notably - and this was a first - breathing challenges at 9,500 feet / 2,700 meters elevation while alpine skiing during a warm powder day, four months before UFE. Hello, squeezed diaphragm.

For surgery, the catheter was inserted in my left wrist, via the radial artery. Post-UFE discharge lasted about 4.5 weeks as light spotting. First post-UFE period began 37 days after surgery - it’s ongoing and, so far, light.

Pre-UFE medication that might have played a role in the growth of the fibroids: oral micronized progesterone, 100 mg. per day. About twenty months before UFE, a naturopathic doctor (I’m in the U.S.) recommended progesterone to control the heavy, erratic menstrual bleeding I suffered from. We tried 25 mg./day, then 50 - and then, on my own, I tried 100mg/day and found, at last, some control over bleeding. Dropping the progesterone for just three weeks in December 2016 led to a nine-week bloodbath, so I had considerable incentive to keep taking it. Did I realize all that time that progesterone MIGHT contribute to the growth of fibroids? Nope. The three medical folks whose advice I sought - two naturopaths and one nurse practitioner - all tow the “it doesn’t promote fibroids” line. Only in the last six months did I get the opposite perspective from other professionals (two docs and another naturopath), who all agree that, potentially, progesterone might have accelerated my fibroids’ growth. (This information spurred me into trying UFE, to break a potentially vicious cycle.) I dropped the progesterone a day before UFE, perhaps adding even more hormone disruption to the mix, post-surgery.

Other post-UFE symptoms: pretty average (whatever “average” might be!) cramping for the 24 hours after surgery, which were spent in the hospital. Notable fatigue followed for the next five weeks, accompanied by headaches (or, early on, a low fever) every afternoon/evening. The rapid swelling of my uterus on Day 2 irritated my bowel, with the worst symptoms lasting from Day 4 through around Day 16 following UFE (though bloating and minor irritation lingered till five weeks after surgery). As of Day 39, this seems to be back to normal.

Thanks for the hive-mind wisdom! 

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