Firstly, it has been over two years and I am still maintaining my shrinkage. Also the cysts I had in my breast have not returned. Hallelujah! When I first started on my journey I had 7 fibroids. They ranged in sizes from 2 to 7 cm. I know that some women have been diagnosed with fibroids even larger. Some people just have one fibroid, and others like me have multiple fibroids. The reduction in all my fibroids has ranged from 35% to 70% reduction. I am not 100% fibroid free. However, my fibroids are small enough that they don't give me any problems, and I am now free from the terrible and sometimes debilitating symptoms. I think that should be everyone's goal, becoming symptom free. To be symptom free some people's fibroids only need to shrink 30% others may need 50%. Also if you really pay attention to what doctors say about surgery, they don't say you will be 100% fibroid free. They say you will be symptom free. That's because it is not harmful to have a few small fibroids. It's only when they get so large that they can interfere with pregnancy, getting pregnant or then you have painful and heavy periods and all the other bad stuff. So shoot for symptom free, not 100% fibroids gone. Also when you have surgery doctors don't always get to all the fibroids. Typically they may concentrate on the larger ones. Sometimes at surgery time a fibroid is small, not worth treating, then 4 years later that small fibroid is larger. That is what happened to me. That is why no matter what treatment you choose, surgery or natural, if you do not want the fibroids grow back or larger you have to follow a plan to prevent it. OR there is a good chance you'll be back battling the same problem again.
So what did I do? As I've written in my earlier blog, shrinking my fibroids is a 3 step plan of attack. To this day I am still taking the same supplements, and I have also added in some more helpful diet changes. When I started on my regimen it took me 2 months to start seeing results. I continued on and each month, they shrank more, and I got better. The natural method isn't as fast as surgery when you go in one day and come out in a few hrs. You will need to be patient, and most of all diligent. In all I would say give it 4 to 6 months, but seeing progress after 2 months. You will then be encouraged and you will then keep going. If you try this natural method you should pay attention to the little signs along the way to help you determine if your fibroids are shrinking. For me, each month I kept track of how all my symptoms were improving. Like I said in my earlier posts on this blog I had lots of symptoms of estrogen dominance. Like heavy bleeding, cyst in breasts, blood clots during my periods, pain, pms, hair breakage, acne and more. So each month I looked for all these things to get better each month and they did. There was time that lasted about a week when my fibroids were shrinking that I had a little pain in between my period. It felt like cramping. It was from the larger fibroid dyeing and shrinking. This happened around my 3rd month. It only lasted on and off for about a week, and I just took an advil.
It's also important for you to be really in touch with your body and to pay attention to all your symptoms. The reason I say this is because even after you get your fibroids to shrink you want to maintain it. Fibroids can grow slowly so them getting larger again can also sneak up on you. But along the way your body will send you messages if you have too much estrogen. For me it's my acne. My acne is my warning signal. It sounds the alarm that my hormones are out of balance and I need to pay attention. For others your alarm could be different. But take the time to find out your alarm system of your body saying your hormones are out of whack. Pay attention to the alarms and then you won't let it go on for so long that the fibroids have a chance to get larger.
The 3 step attack I keep talking about that I used to shrink my fibroids is diet, supplements, and liver detox and cleanse. 1st Step Diet: You have to change your diet so that you are not adding extra estrogen into your body. You should switch to a low estrogen diet. That means reducing dairy, sugars, meat with estrogen, caffeine. Many people switch to organic meat only. I actually just have cut down on my meat. Organic meat means no extra hormones were added to fatten the animal, but you still do have the natural occurring estrogen in the meat. So I do 3 meatless days per week. No meat period these 3 days. On those days I also end up eating more fruits vegetable beans and whole grains. Then the other times when I eat meat, I will either eat organic and limit how much meat I eat. The point to the diet changes is that you must put a lot less estrogen in your body than what you are doing now. So avoid lots of dairy, sugar, caffeine, soy, eat organic meat, and/or cut back on meat.
2nd Step: Supplements and food to process and eliminate. The purpose of the supplements is to help your body process and eliminate the excess estrogen in your body. That's why I take DIM. I take 4 everyday. Two in AM and 2 in PM. DIM is like eating eating 2 lbs of broccoli and it has been shown to help your body process estrogen and restore hormonal balance. I also eat more fiber. My choice is oatmeal in the morning. You need fiber to help remove the estrogen. Fiber helps you poop and when you poop the excess estrogen is eliminated. So if you are not pooping everyday, then estrogen is staying stuck in your body.
3rd Step: Liver strengthening and detoxing. The liver is a filter that cleanses our bodies from toxins and excess estrogen. So if you have a weak or sluggish liver it can't do it's job correctly. To detox daily, strengthen my liver and and increase antioxidents I drink Xango juice twice per day. 1 oz in am and 1 oz in PM. I also take the Pure Essence vitamins. These vitamins are great and contain whole foods that help detox and strengthen my liver and improve my overall health.
So that's what I do. I do it everyday. Also I have found it very important to do all three. Each step by itself is not enough. You can't just become vegan and vegetarian. You still need the other 2 steps. So don't try and take a short cut. Be diligent, Be consistent and Be patient. You'll know if it's working for you. I always think you should work with your Dr. My doctor let me do the natural way and monitored me for 4 months to make sure.
Good luck on your journey. I pray it will be as successful as mine and that you too can experience healing.
Keep Reading more of my post on fibroids click on this link, see other posts on the right side of this page. Knowledge is powerful.
http://shrunkfibroids.blogspot.com/
I order my DIM online because it's cheaper than buying it in a health food store. Here is the link where you can save $10 on your order and get free shipping if you want to start using DIM and any of the other supplements I use. I posted pics on this blog and the name of the supplements I take. Dim (4 per day) , Green Tea (1 per day), Vitamins 2 Per day, and drink Mangosteen Juice.
Take Care,
Deborah
CLICK HERE TO READ 10STEPS TO KICKSTART SHRINKING YOUR FIBROIDS
