by Suni Rose
Originally Appeared in Natural Awakenings, Atlanta edition.
Fibroid cysts are benign growths formed by cells on the muscle walls of the uterus. These cysts can be found either inside or outside the uterus and are the result of abnormal growth patterns within the cells of the muscle walls. Statistics show that fibroids affect about 30% of all women. Most women know they have fibroids only when the cysts are discovered during a routine medical examination. Research has shown that fibroids are five times more common in African-American women than they are in Caucasians.
It is thought that the growths occur in women during their late thirties to early forties and that they shrink considerably after menopause. Thus it is believed that excess production of estrogen may play a part in their formation. Oral contraceptives with a high estrogen content may also contribute to the formation of fibroids.
Fibroids can produce symptoms such as abnormally heavy menstrual periods, bleeding between periods, anemia, infertility, increased vaginal discharge, painful sexual intercourse, and bleeding after intercourse. The growths can be painful and can cause bowel and kidney obstruction.
From the viewpoint of orthodox medicine, surgery has been the accepted treatment for fibroids. However, in the early stages the cysts are usually benign and the patient relatively symptom-free. Thus physicians are reluctant to intervene. They usually hold off treatment until the tumors reach the size where they begin to be troublesome. Yet the likelihood exists that fibroid tumors can become malignant if left untreated over an extended period.
A hysterectomy was formerly the principal treatment for fibroids. An alternative procedure (a myomectomy) was developed, where only the tumors are removed and the uterus is left intact. There’s a higher chance of complications following this surgery and about a 50% chance the tumors will return. In recent years other, surgery-free, methods have been tried by medical science. It may be too early yet to know the success rates of these procedures.
From the viewpoint of holistic healing, uterine fibroids can be healed without surgery and the tumors prevented from reoccurring, once the energetic component of their formation is understood. Almost all disease is psychological in nature, having its origin or cause in the emotional body. The emotional or astral body is the body that is most active in humanity today. Desire is a quality of the emotional body. Since most people are ruled by the emotions, and since the emotional body is connected to the lower chakras, we find that the chakras which lie below the diaphragm are generally in an unbalanced state – usually a state of overactivity.
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