When you have symptoms from fibroids, the pain and disruption they cause can take over your life. These benign tumors in the uterus affect women in their thirties, forties, and right up to menopause. The pain can be relentless and the excessive bleeding can lead to anemia. It’s not easy when you have a family to care for each day, but try some of these self care tips for women who suffer from fibroids.
Start With YOU
Finding time alone to care just for you can be virtually impossible, but if you don’t carve out a little time every day, the emotional and physical pain can become like a timebomb. Put another way, if you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to care for anyone else.
No feeling guilty, no time to play the victim, just care for you. Just like you need to put on the oxygen mask first in a flight emergency before you can help others, this isn’t selfish. It is simply rational.
Tip To Ease The Pain
To ease the painful cramps, you can try some the following self-care methods:
- Take anti-inflammatory meds or birth control pills to reduce symptoms. Sometimes an IUD can help with this as well. Talk with your OBGYN about what might be best for you.
- Use a hot water bottle or a heating pad set on low.
- Take a warm bath to relax your muscles.
- Lie down with a pillow under your knees.
- Lie down and bring your knees to your chest.
- If you bleed even longer than usual, take a multivitamin with iron to prevent anemia.
Most of these self care tips don’t take more than 30 minutes to do. Find someone you trust to “cover” for you so you can be alone.
Some Practical Tips
Stay in touch with your OBGYN and make regular appointments. Anything out of the ordinary should be reported quickly.
Start a symptom journal where you can catalog any new or worsening symptoms or improvements. Dating when things change helps you to be more specific with your physician. You don’t have to remember everything if you have it all written down.
Adopt a low fat high fiber diet including omega 3 fatty acids.
Regular moderate exercise can help with circulation. It can also help you lose some weight since excess fat increases the amount of estrogen in your system.
Tips To Reduce Stress
Like the proverbial vicious cycle, feeling stressed from your fibroids can lead to difficulty sleeping which then in turn makes you even more stressed. That same stress can make your periods even more difficult. Find some ways to overcome the stress with yoga or meditation.
If that seems like an impossibility, find time to walk alone, with a friend, or your little one. Walking cures lots of ills. Look at nature, smell a flower, take a photo, and most of all, know you are not alone.
Request an Appointment
Contact Capital Women’s Care with questions or for more self-care tips for fibroids. Our board-certified OBGYNs have extensive experience diagnosing and treating patients for fibroids. Call (301) 681-9101 to schedule an appointment at our office in Silver Spring or Rockville, MD today!