PERIOD PROBLEMS

and a minimally invasive solution.

By Mary Taylor

Over the decades, women have made huge strides in higher education, professional career advancement, and compensation in pursuit of a better quality of life. Ironically, these achievements are oftentimes at the expense of ignoring routine pain and sacrificing comfort because of menstruation.

When prompted, most women can recall their very first “period story,” usually between the ages of eight and fifteen years. Each story has its own unique details that, more often than not, reflect pain and discomfort.

...periods are uncomfortable, but they shouldn't affect quality of life.

For girls with a normal period cycle of twenty-eight days and symptoms that last three to five days, this equates to 11-18% of each month, or 39-65 days a year revolving around menstruation. For the average fertility window of a woman between twelve and forty years old, this equals 1092-1820 days (about 3-5 years) of a woman’s life when she is dealing with her period.

The National Library of Medicine published findings from a selfassessment questionnaire among 408 young women where 84.1% reported pain and discomfort as symptoms of their period.5 Because pain during menstruation is so prevalent among young women, it is often ignored.

The problem is that there is no one size fits all when it comes to discussing what constitutes normal period symptoms. Our experiences, pain thresholds, genetics, and environment all influence how we handle menstruation. Simply put, periods are uncomfortable, but they shouldn’t affect quality of life. If any girl or woman finds that she is missing school, can’t focus, or needs regular pain relievers, she should consult with her doctor because these symptoms may be an indication of something else.

One such possibility includes uterine fibroids, which are noncancerous tumors of the muscular lining of the uterus. These benign growths affect 70% of White women and 80% of Black women in the U.S. by the time they are 50 years old1, and can be diagnosed with a simple ultrasound by your primary care doctor. Generally, uterine fibroids present with abdominal pressure, pain, heavy menstrual bleeding, severe cramps, bloating, pain during intercourse, or the need to frequently urinate. These symptoms may be dismissed, especially by younger women who have been conditioned to accept or mask their period symptoms.

...44% of fibroid patients were never informed about UFE.

Dr. Saravanan Kasthuri, MD is the medical director at Northwest Endovascular Surgery in Richland, WA and has been treating women with uterine fibroids for over twenty years. He’s board-certified in interventional radiology and specializes in minimally invasive, image-guided endovascular surgical procedures such as uterine fibroid embolization.

In this procedure, Dr. Kasthuri inserts a small tube called a catheter through the artery in the groin. He uses x-rays to help him navigate the catheter to the specific blood vessels that feed the fibroid. He then injects small particles through the catheter, blocking blood supply to the fibroid. Starved of blood, the tumor shrinks and symptoms resolve. Patients are treated in the gorgeous Richland office and go home the same day.

“There are two main options for treating the painful symptoms that uterine fibroids cause. These treatments are vastly different: hysterectomy requires an open surgery, general anesthesia, a few days in a hospital, several weeks to recover and complete removal of the uterus preventing any future pregnancies; Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) on the other hand, requires no open surgery, no general anesthesia, a small incision that can heal without stitches, and patients have gone on to have healthy pregnancies,” says Dr. Kasthuri.

For women with fibroids who are hoping to preserve fertility, UFE is a better option than the alternative. Though the vast majority of women experience an improved quality of life within two weeks of the treatment, 44% of fibroid patients were never informed that UFE was an option.2,3

Dr. Kasthuri’s office in Richland combines the latest technological advances, a highly skilled team, and a warm culture that will make you feel right at home.

If your periods are painful or heavy to the point of placing limitations on your daily life, talk to your doctor and see if you have uterine fibroids. If so, reach out to Dr. Kasthuri and see if uterine fibroid embolization could give you the higher quality of life you deserve.

Resources

1. Society of Interventional Radiology, 2022, https://www.sirweb.org/patient-center/conditions-and-treatments/uterine-fibroids/

2. Cassling, 2023, https://www.cassling.com/blog/uterine-fibroid-embolization-everything-you-need-to-know?

3. Interventional News, August 2017, https://interventionalnews.com/women-largely-unaware-uterine-fibroid-embolization/

4. USA Fibroids Center, 2023, https://www.usafibroidcenters.com/blog/guide-non-surgical-fibroid-treatment-usa-fibroid-centers/

5. National Library of Medicine, June 2012, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3392715/