Uterine Tumors and Pregnancy - Uterine Tumors Diagnosis

Fri, 15 Oct 2004 01:28:40 -0500

(RSSdownloads.com) October 14, 2004 -- Benign tumors of the uterus can be symptomatic or asymptomatic. Most frequent symptoms of uterine tumors are bleeding, feeling of fullness or something bouncing in the pelvis when jogging or exercising, pelvic pain, and dysmenorrhea (painful menstrual periods, when the uterus seems to be trying to expel something on the inside of it). Diagnosis of uterine tumors can be done by pelvic examination, ultrasonography, x-ray, MRI and other sophisticated diagnostic techniques. They all will add some information, but none of them will rule out the concern on the females mind that the tumors may be malignant. The treatment of the tumors will depend on several significant factors.

The treating physician will consider what the symptoms are, what the age of the patient is, and what the plans for plans on pregnancy and having babies are. If the tumors produce few symptoms and the patient is in the perimenopausal age (close to menopause), it might be prudent to simply observe the patient, repeat ultrasonography in fair intervals to appreciate the changes in the size of the tumors, and be ready to proceed with therapy only if there is a call for it. That happens mostly if the tumors are found to suddenly grow at a significant rate. If they are symptomatic or the female does not plan on using her uterus to get pregnant, diligent observation of the patient is appropriate. Unfortunately, the only medication which could shrink the size of the tumors works only temporarily. After it is discontinued, the uterus returns very quickly to the original size. If a decisive treatment is called for, it means surgery.

Uterine Tumors - Treatment
As we discussed previously, there is no medical treatment for uterine tumors. There is only medication which could reduce some of the symptoms of uterine tumors, if the patient is in a situation where the growth will be forestalled by natural causes. That happens in the time shortly prior to menopause (perimenopause). Thus, the only way to decisively treat uterine tumors is surgery. The classical, old-fashioned procedure is to open the abdomen and remove the tumor or tumors one by one, and repair the defect in the uterine wall as well as possible. Opening of the abdomen (laparotomy) is considered a major procedure, which usually calls for a few days in the hospital a! nd a recovery period of several weeks. With the invention of laparoscopy, there were a number of techniques introduced to deal with benign uterine tumors. Laparoscopic laser treatment was embraced with large expectations, but unfortunately these did not work out, and this technique has been, for all practical purposes, abandoned. Remaining techniques are mainly removal of fibroids, cauterization of the fibroids with the goal to stop blood circulation with subsequent atrophy of the tumor, or a radiology technique introduced fairly recently - artery embolization with small particles, meant to cause atrophy of the tumor by cutting the blood supply.

For one or the other reason this procedure usually is quite painful. Available information suggests that the therapy of the tumors only causes them to shrink. Recently, it has been found that this technique causes significant problems in trying to conceive, and sometimes complication at the time of delivery. Cauterization of uterine tumors (myolysis) uses electrical current and heat to interfere with the blood supply to the uterus. The advantage of myolysis is that the treatment of the tumor is done under direct vision, and is limited only to the desired area compared to embolization, where there is no control of where the individual particles can go, possibly flowing to vital organs. If myolysis is done too vigorously, it can cause a similar problem as uterine artery embolization, that is, adversely affect the chances of conception and increase complications at the time of delivery. Thus, to produce the best possible results both of these procedures need to be one by practitioners who are experienced in their particular specialty.

The Tyler Medical Clinic, INC:
Dr Jaroslav Marik
310-278-7590
Tyler Medical Clinic

Determining the Sex of a Child

Mon, 30 Aug 2004 10:46:27 -0500

Beverly Hills, CA (RSSdownloads.com) August 31, 2004 -- Dr Jaroslav Marik from The Tyler Medical Clinic, INC writes about the predetermination of the sex of a child and how it can affect us socially as well as its medical ramifications. Significant advances in the medical industry have created new arguments for both sides.

The ability to determine the sex of the child has brought a number of significant advances, advantages and options. The predetermination of the sex of the future offspring is important for medical as well as social reasons. Dr. Marik explains the social reasons first, as they are simpler. There are situations when the husband and wife, for one or the other reason, prefer to have a child of a certain sex. Usually it is for so-called "balancing" of the family.

That is, if they happen to have two or three girls, they might want to have a boy, or vice versa. In our seven years of experience in this area, there were only occasional couples who came to us with a request for predetermination of the sex for their first child. This balancing of the family has been criticized by a number of people with various interests. We of course have our own feeling, and that is that as long as there is no harm we will comply with the requests. The only negative aspect is the destruction of healthy embryos that happen to be of a sex that the couple does not desire. For that reason, we have a condition, and that is that healthy embryos of the "wrong" sex are donated to other infertile people to adopt.

A more important medical reason for sex selection is the prevention of certain hereditary diseases. There are a number of "X-linked" diseases, where the genetic abnormality is tied to the X chromosome. If the child inherits this "diseased" chromosome, it will be either fully affected by the disease or be a carrier, and could possibly pass the disease on to their progeny. Thus, determination of the sex of the embryo is an exciting and relatively simple procedure to do, which can stop the propagation of certain diseases. What is even more exciting is the fact that pre-selection of sex can control transfer of increased risk of certain cancers, such as cancer of the prostate and cancer of the ovaries. Girls do not have a prostate; boys don't have ovaries. In families with a strong history of one or the other similar cancers, simply making sure that the child is of a sex which would not make it a victim of an increased risk of cancer can be very reassuring.

Dr. Marik: "The recent technology is such that these examinations of embryos are easy to do."

For additional information (or sample, copy or demo), contact:
Dr. Marik - 310-278-7590

Dr. Marik has been practicing medicine for over 40 years and has helped thousands of couples get pregnant.

About Tyler Medical Clinic
The Tyler Medical Clinic, Inc. was founded in the early 1940's by Dr. Edward Tyler, who himself had experienced an infertility problem and its impact on his marriage and general happiness. Dr. Tyler was interested in fertility - control of it (he was one of the pioneers in the research of oral contraceptives) and lack of fertility. He was a well-renowned and respected specialist in both of these fields. He was a member of the teaching staff of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Internal Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Jaroslav Marik became a partner and later director of the Tyler Medical Clinic, Inc. and was instrumental in the development of a number of tests and procedures now used routinely in the investigation and treatment of infertility. The Tyler Clinic, Inc. in West Los Angeles was, for several decades, the only infertility center in the southwest. For years it has been the place to go for help when others failed.

The Tyler Medical Clinic, INC:
Dr Jaroslav Marik
310-278-7590
Tyler Medical Clinic

thesexofachild

Uterine Tumors and Pregnancy - Uterine Tumors Diagnosis

Determining the Sex of a Child