What Patients Need to Know About Uterine Fibroid Embolization

The procedure itself is fairly straightforward to perform. It involves putting a catheter into the arteries that supply the fibroids and injecting small particles, which essentially clog the arteries and stop the blood flow. Because of that, it can be done very safely as an outpatient procedure, and it is not uncomfortable to undergo the procedure. The major issue with Uterine Fibroid Embolization is that when a part of the body doesn’t have a blood supply, it hurts. So there can be crampy pain after the procedure. To mitigate that, we have our patients obtain all their post-operative pain medications ahead of time. We start them during the procedure and make sure that everything is well taken care of before you leave our facility. You can expect that for about three to five days after the procedure, there may be some manageable, crampy pelvic pain. It gradually gets better as time goes on.