Uterine fibroids are benign tumours of the uterus made up of muscle cells and fibrous connective tissue. This is a common disorder affecting 20% – 30% between 35 and 50 years old. They can cause pelvic pain, heavy menstrual bleeding and difficulty in conceiving. You can develop your self-care routines to manage and reduce uterine fibroids.

Causes of Uterine Fibroids 

In western medicine, doctors do not know the exact causes of uterine fibroids, but research point factors including genetic changes and excess hormones. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) reproductive medicine, uterine fibroids are caused by dampness and internal phlegm that prevent Blood and Qi to flow freely in the body. The underlying cause of dampness is Spleen Qi deficiency.

Self-Care Routines You Can Focus On

In most cases, small uterine fibroids do not require medical attention. Self-monitoring and regular follow up with your medical doctor is usually recommended.  While nothing can make them magically disappear altogether, we put together a few simples steps you can follow in developing your own self-care routine to keep uterine fibroids from affecting your quality of life and childbearing goals.

Reduce Exposure to Exogenous Estrogens

Xenoestrogens have found their ways to our bodies through our food, skincare, personal care and plastics. These exogenous estrogens can mimic the behaviour of your body’s natural estrogen. While is difficult to control how much exogenous estrogens you take in, you can always make conscious choices to reduce your exposure to them.

What you can do:

Eat as many organic vegetables as you can. This will help to cut down your exposure to agricultural pesticides and chemicals.

Avoid hormonally treated meat as much as you can.

Use certified organic or natural skincare. If natural skincare is not your thing, use skincare products that do not contain hormone disruptors such as parabens, placental extracts.

Reduce the use of sunscreens. Many commercial sunscreens contain endocrines disruptors such as benzophenone-1, benzophenone-2, oxybenzone, just to name a few.

Cut down on processed soy products. Soy contains phytoestrogens (plants) that controversially can cause uterine fibroids to grown. While studies have not confirmed this, we have seen many women who regularly consume soy and soy products suffer from large fibroids.

Support Your Liver

One of your liver’s role is to breakdown estrogens in your body, this is on top of detoxifying a whole lot of other substances in your body. By reducing the load on your liver, you can support your liver in breaking down excess estrogen more efficiently.

What you can do:

Cut down on alcohol. Alcohol appears to increase the amount of estrogen in your body. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean your liver has to work extra hard to remove the excess estrogen.

Take liver supporting herbs such as turmeric and milk thistle.

Include supplementation of Vitamin B, which helps to breakdown and remove estrogen from your body.

Improve Blood Circulation in Your Lower Abdomen

Improving Qi and Blood circulation in the lower abdomen and pelvic area can help to reduce the occurrence of fibroids.

What you can do:

Cut down on the consumption of cold drinks, fruit juice and raw food. These will cause the ‘womb to become cold’ and hamper blood circulation in the pelvic area.

Reduce exposure to external invasion of cold to your body, such as avoid sitting on cold cement or stone floors.

Daily self-massage in the pelvic area can promote blood blow and thus reduce fibroids. You can use Meditrina Ageless Herbal Cream for the massage. Alternatively, you can also use QiActiv Pelvic Care Essential Oil.

Rest Enough, Body and Mind

Give your body time to repair and rejuvenate, and sleeping is one of the best ways to do it. Your body, hormones and organs rely on rest as a foundation for you to feel your best, heal and continue onward.

What you can do:

Exercise regularly. Unless you are a professional athlete, do not overdo it. For high-intensity workouts, do it once every two days. Stretching and low-intensity workouts such as yoga, doing them daily is fine.

Spend two hours a week in nature. A little dose of Vitamin D and fresh air can do wonders to your body and mind.

Sleep 8 hours a day. While this can be challenging at times, you can catch up on lost sleep by sleeping more for one or two nights a week, and sleep in on weekends ( but no more than two hours past the normal time you wake up).