(February 1, 2012 - Insidermedicine)

A therapy that modulates the effects of the hormone progesterone can help reduce bleeding and shrink fibroid size among women with symptomatic fibroids, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Here is some information about uterine fibroids:

•    They are benign, or noncancerous, growths that occur in the uterus

•    They can cause symptoms such as heavy menstrual bleeding or bleeding between periods, painful periods, and the need to urinate often

•    In younger women, they can impair fertility

Researchers from the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc Catholic University of Louvain randomly assigned nearly 250 women with fibroids that were causing excessive uterine bleeding and anemia to treatment with a 5 or 10 mg daily dose of a drug known as ulipristal or a placebo. Ulirpristal inhibits the action of progesterone on tissue in the uterus. The women also took iron supplements for their anemia. Treatment lasted up to 13 weeks, at which time the women could undergo surgery to remove their fibroids.

At the end of the 13 weeks, more than 90% of the women taking the high or low dose of ulipristal had their uterine bleeding under control, compared with only about a fifth of those on placebo. In fact, most of the women taking ulipristal stopped bleeding completely within 10 days of starting therapy. In addition, the fibroids actually shrank among the women taking the active drug, while the fibroids of the women on placebo grew slightly. Treatment with ulipristal resulted in some changes in the tissue lining the uterus, but these changes disappeared within six months of stopping the drug. One woman taking the high dose of ulipristal experienced a serious bleed in her uterus.

Today’s research suggests that ulipristal could offer relief to women suffering from fibroids, although the long-term safety and efficacy of this approach is yet to be determined.