TCM treatment can focus on shrinking fibroids and relieving symptoms through herbal medicine, acupuncture, and tuina massage. Creating good treatment protocols for each individual is a complicated task that depends on body constitution, symptoms, period cycle, age, and medical history.
WHAT ARE FIBROIDS?
Fibroids are muscular tumors that grow in the wall of the uterus. Another medical term for fibroids is leiomyoma or just "myoma". Fibroids are almost always benign and grow as a single tumor or in clusters. About 20 percent to 80 percent of women develop fibroids by the time they reach age 50. Fibroids are most common in women in their 40s and early 50s and not all women with fibroids have symptoms. Women who do have symptoms often find fibroids hard to live with.
Fibroids can vary in size, number, and location in the uterus and pelvis; manifestations can be variable, from a complete lack of symptoms at one end of the spectrum – to severe bleeding, dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, infertility, lower back pain, complications during pregnancy, dyspareunia, enlargement of the lower abdomen, and dysfunction of urination and bowel movement at the other end. The fibroids may grow slowly or rapidly, or they may remain the same size.
FROM CASE STUDIES
Qian Bo-Xuan in Case Studies in Gynecology refers to masses, accumulations, and gatherings, which would include the structure of fibroids. These “hysteromyomas are hard and are characterized by advanced menstruation which appears excessive with dripping, leading to damage of both qi and yin, and weakness of both the Thoroughfare Vessel and the Conception Vessel.” (Page 515)
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, in general, the pathophysiology of uterine fibroids has several sources. A significant pattern is Spleen Qi deficiency, which allows dampness to accumulate. The dampness stagnates and becomes phlegm, which congeals into a tumor in the uterus, known as a uterine fibroid or leiomyoma. According to Qian Bo Xuan, these nodules are “mainly caused by fire due to liver depression, spleen weakness, accumulation of dampness, downward flow of damp heat, and the failure of Qi to disperse in transformation.”
Chinese medicine practitioners prescribe herbal formulas as part of the overall protocol. Some herbs that are often used for shrinking fibroid masses include Bur Reed Tuber (San Leng), Zedoray Rhizome (E Zhu), Euonymus Alatus (Gui Jian YU), Carapax Trionycis (Bie Jia), Pollen Typhae, and Radix Arnebiae/Radix Lithospermi (Zi Cao).
References:
1. Qian Bo-xuan: Case Studies In Gynecology (Masters of Chinese Medicine Series) 1st Edition, 2006.
2. Dan Bensky, Steven Clavey, Erich Stoger. Chinese Herbal Medicine, Materia Medica. Third Edition.