Uterine fibroids are benign tumors that grow in the uterus. They affect a surprising 25% of women in their childbearing years, and 70-80% of women age 50 and over.
Many women don’t know they have fibroids, but when your fibroids do cause symptoms, they’re uncomfortable and hard to live with.
Dr. Peter Khamvongsa and his team at The Miami Institute for Women’s Health are dedicated to providing a multitude of urogynecological and other women's health services. They’re especially pleased to offer the Acessa® procedure, an advanced treatment for fibroid removal that’s highly successful.
Here’s what you need to know about uterine fibroids and this game-changing outpatient procedure.
Some common symptoms of fibroids include:
Another sign of fibroids that might be attributed to other conditions is anemia. This makes sense because if you’re bleeding between periods or experiencing exceptionally long or heavy periods, you’re more at risk for becoming anemic (red blood cell deficient).
Aside from the pain and inconvenience of fibroids, they can also cause problems with conception as well as certain pregnancy complications, depending on their location.
There are multiple treatment approaches for fibroids, including simple monitoring, hysterectomy, hormonal medications, procedures to shrink the fibroids, and laparoscopic procedures that remove fibroids entirely.
There are a couple treatments that shrink fibroids, including Acessa, an exciting advanced treatment that Dr. Khamvongnsa has embraced. It is a radiofrequency ablation procedure that uses heat to make the fibroids smaller.
Dr. Khamvongsa recommends Acessa treatment frequently to patients because unlike hysterectomy, it allows you to retain your uterus, plus it doesn’t involve invasive surgery like with complete removal of fibroids. Acessa also doesn’t require an overnight hospital stay.
In fact, aside from watchful waiting, Acessa is the least invasive treatment you can seek for fibroids.
Since Acessa is a minimally invasive procedure, Dr. Khamvongsa makes just three small incisions and uses a handpiece that allows him great precision. He favors minimally invasive procedures like Acessa because they’re associated with faster healing and less pain, bleeding, and scarring.
During the procedure, your doctor can target individual fibroids and “zap” them, without harming surrounding tissue. After the procedure, you can return home within hours and be back to enjoying your favorite activities in just four to five days.
Other advantages of the Acessa procedure include:
The best news about Acessa is that a whopping 94% of patients reported some level of success with the treatment, and only 11% needed any additional intervention after using Acessa.
If you think Acessa could be the right treatment for you, call our office at 786-220-8664 or book an appointment online.
