Managing Fatigue Caused by Uterine Fibroids

Maybe you thought your fatigue was due to all of life’s daily grind, plus picking up the kids from after school activities, grocery shopping after a day of work, and then of course, laundry, cooking dinner, playing peacemaker, cleaning, and wearing multiple hats. All that would certainly make anyone tired! However, when you have fibroids, something else is adding to that fatigue and exhaustion. Time to make managing fatigue caused by uterine fibroids a priority.

Symptoms of Uterine Fibroids

When a woman is dealing with symptoms from uterine fibroids, her time of month can be debilitating. There are some lucky women who have mild or no symptoms, but for those with severe symptoms, it can drastically affect your life and limit your activities.

Symptoms of uterine fibroids may include:

• Chronic pelvic pain
• Bladder issues like frequent urination
• Lower back pain
• Rectal pressure and difficulty with bowel movements
• Discomfort or pain during sexual intercourse
• Chronic vaginal discharge

Most women with fibroid symptoms will tell you that by far the worst problem involves very long painful periods and very heavy bleeding. Women can soak through sanitary protection in less than an hour, pass large clots, and become afraid to leave the house on their heaviest days.

When you lose that amount of blood, it is easy to develop anemia.

Why Fatigue?

Excessive bleeding every month can lead to anemia, meaning you don’t have sufficient healthy red blood cells to provide oxygen to your body. This reduced level of oxygen causes fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath, chest pain, cold hands and feet, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, and headaches. This describes iron-deficiency anemia.

Tell your interventional radiologist when the worst fatigue hits you: before, during, or after your period, or all of the above.

Managing the Fatigue

If anemia from excessive bleeding is the culprit, one remedy is to include more iron in your diet to correct the deficiency.

Eat eggs, beef, chicken, raisins, dates, broccoli, figs, almonds, string beans, and liver. In addition, start taking some over-the-counter iron supplements along with Vitamin C to help your body absorb the iron. Your IR doctor may prescribe you receive doses of iron via IV if the anemia is severe enough.

There are non-surgical and less invasive treatment options available, so if your fibroid symptoms are causing your fatigue and interfere with your life, don’t wait to find out what else you can do.