Medical treatment

Treatment with tablets are indicated if your fibroids are relatively small and your main problems are heavy or painful periods. In this situation, drugs such as tranexamic acid or mefenamic acid can be prescribed by your doctor. Unfortunately, these drugs do not cure the fibroids, so you may have to take them for many years. Similarly, they do not tend to work as well as in women with heavy periods who do not have fibroids.

GnRH analogues are sometimes used for short-term symptom relief or prior to surgery. These drugs have the effect of inducing a pseudo-menopause, and the effect of treatment is to shrink the fibroids by about 35% after 3 months of treatment. Periods often stop as well. However, side effects related to falling oestrogen levels make this treatment unsuitable for long-term management in the majority of cases.

As heavy periods are a common cause of anaemia, you may also be asked to take regular iron replacement to correct this.

Ultimately, many women who try medical treatment request something more definitive. Medical treatment may also not be the best choice if the fibroids are large, or are causing other problems such as pressure symptoms or subfertility.

	Avoids surgery
	Treatment may have side effects Drugs may have to be continued for several years Drugs are not curative

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