Dr. Yan Katsnelson, Founder and CEO of USA Fibroid Centers, and Eugenia Buie, Fibroid Fighter, spoke with CBS news reporter Lisa Rozner during National Women’s Health Month, which aims to help women prioritize their health.
Every year, millions of women silently suffer from fibroids and both Katsnelson and Buie want to help change that. Buie talked about her experience with fibroids.
“I noticed that throughout the course of my life, I was having anxiety attacks. My cycle went from five days to seven days to ten days,” Eugenia Buie told Rozner.
The 43-year-old described how the pain of having uterine fibroids was so severe that she could no longer exercise – which was her passion.
“There are times when I would pass out,” she said. “The doctor told me when I had my blood transfusion, that the anxiety attacks were attributed to the fact that the fibroids were taking my blood.”
Any woman experiencing comparable symptoms, according to Dr. Yan Katsnelson, should get an ultrasound.
“Ultrasound within five minutes can tell you whether you have it or not. Very rarely an MRI is needed,” he said.
In Buie’s case, she had been told two decades ago about her fibroids, but a doctor, she says, told her not to worry and suggested iron and birth control pills. Fast forward to last year.
“I had 12 fibroids. Some were the size of, I was told, the size of a cantaloupe to the smaller size of a kiwi,” she said. “My OBGYN suggested a hysterectomy.”
She wanted to preserve her body’s ability to bear children. One day, a “Real Housewives of Atlanta” episode showed model Cynthia Bailey talk about a procedure called uterine fibroid embolization.
“We can put a catheter that goes through the body to the origin of the arteries that feed those fibroids,” said Dr. Katsnelson. “They will shrink and get disappeared from the body.”
Buie decided on UFE. She went home the same day and recovered in about a week’s time.
“The liberty that I have to move,” she said. “I feel like I got my life back.”
She wants to empower other women to learn about their options and take action as soon as possible.
Watch the entire broadcast here.
