Your periods are all of the sudden a bit heavier, you see these huge clots, you notice a bit more cramping and you wonder what’s going on.

Before you do anything with herbs, foods, supplements or any other alternative treatment PLEASE get checked by your doctor to rule out uterine cancer, it could save your life. When I did this I found that my problem was uterine fibroids so I began doing my research and this is what I found…

One thing that put my mind at ease was reading in “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Fibroids” by Dr’s Goodwin and Broders is that uterine fibroids are not cancerous; they are benign growths in the uterine cavity. Sometimes they can extend outside of the uterus or grow into the uterine wall this is when it becomes problematic. For most women this is not the problem in fact some aren’t even aware that they have fibroids. I was not so lucky I had very heavy bleeding and huge clots making me anemic and I had some cramping that was not usual for me.

When I started researching this I found that fibroids are dependent on estrogen for their development. Estrogen dominance or too much estrogen can cause other problems for women like ovarian cysts, uterine or breast cancer, fertility problems and unexplained weight gain in the abdomen, thighs and hips. I can see why this is becoming more common with so many xeno-estrogens in our dairy, beef, and chicken, foods prepared in plastic, birth control and HRT medications.

Usually when estrogen levels decrease the growth of the fibroid slows down causing it to shrink, ultimately after menopause when the ovaries no longer produce estrogen the fibroids go away. Increasing natural progesterone can also help shrink the fibroid. Plant based progesterone’s like wild yam and Vitex block the absorption of xeno-estrogen without the side effects of synthetic progesterone like break through bleeding, liver damage, abnormal hair growth, miscarriage and depression to name a few. I encourage you to read “Hormone Heresy” by S. Sellman to see all of the side effects of synthetic hormones; it’s scary stuff.

Another way to slow down the progression of fibroids is with plant estrogens. They are not stored in the body and they have the ability to block the absorption of xeno-estrogens and the stronger estrogens that are naturally produced by the body. Estriol is one of these plant based estrogens, studies have been done showing that women with higher levels of Estriol have less incidence of breast cancer. This is probably due to the fact that it blocks the more toxic forms of estrogen that can cause cancers; working much like the medication tamoxifen. Tamoxifen is a drug given to women who have had breast cancer to prevent a reoccurrence of estrogen dominant breast cancer. However this drug may be responsible for uterine cancer, eye damage, blood clots, osteoporosis, depression and many other problems. My question is why use this medication when Estriol can be gotten from foods like lentils, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage and from herbs like red clover, vitex, licorice, dandelion and sage.

I ended up putting together a formula that has herbs which will balance out estrogen and progesterone (wild yam, vitex, sarsaparilla or licorice). I also have herbs to support my liver because the liver is important in converting the foods that we eat into hormones you also want to cleanse the liver of the excess hormones I used yellow dock, and dandelion, but wild yam, milk thistle and licorice will do this too.

And because I was losing so much blood every month I used nutritive herbs to keep me from becoming anemic. I used Burdock and yellow dock and I ate kelp. You could also use nettle, red raspberry and astragalus. These herbs also contain calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, boron, bioflavanoids vitamin A and C. They help to support the female’s body aiding in such conditions like osteoporosis, heavy bleeding, anemia, and cramping, hot flashes and irregular periods. You can also get these nutrients form foods like broccoli, nuts, cherries, raisins, cabbage, and from other herbs like spirulina, rose hips, rose buds, flax and kelp.
Finally I used ginger because of its anti estrogenic properties blocking the uptake of unnecessary estrogen, you could also use sage, marshmallow, yarrow, ginkgo, rosemary or dong quai.

Beyond herbs I modified my diet cutting back on sugar, coffee, processed foods, fatty foods and proteins (unless organic) this is because they deplete the body of the nutrients that I listed earlier plus many of these also contain xeno estrogens. Instead I added more foods that supply the body with nutrients to prevent further growth of the fibroid, foods like nuts, seeds, whole grains, dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. I am eating more organic to eliminate as many xeno estrogens as I can.

P.S. I have not done this yet but I have also found in my research that acupuncture can be effective for many women that have uterine fibroids.