8/14/2019 Holly Tranzor

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Holly Tranzor

8/14/2019 Holly Tranzor

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Hol ly T ranzor knew so m eth in g w a s w ron g w he n s he d id s i t - ups

faithfu lly b ut he r b e l ly g rew la rger ins tead o f ge t ting. flatte r.

Itgot to the point where the Vallejo

re sident, then 37, couldn't bend over

to put on her gym socks wi thout

feeling discomfort .

Tranzor, who was also suffering fatigue,knew she had uterine f ibroids. After years of

increasingly severe menstrual periods, sh ehad researched her condit ion on the Internet

and in 1990 began to consult physicians in

the community to monitor her condition.

Fibroids are nodules that develop within

the muscle wal l of the uterus of som e

women dur ing thei r childbearing years.Although most women wi l l have no sy mp-

toms, some experience excessive or painfulbleeding during menstruation, bloating in

the abdomen and low back pain. F ibro ids

contribute to infert il ity and are diagnosed

in African American women three t imes

more of ten than in whi te women. About 70perce nt of women will have fibroids bytheir late 40s. --

Current treatments for symptomatic

f ibroids include m yomectomy, a surgery

that removes only the f ibroids and leavesthe uterus intact; uterine artery emboliza-

tion, a procedure that starves the f ibroids

of b lood supply so they shr ink; and hys-terectomy, removal of the uterus. Fib roids

account for 200,000 hysterectomies and30,000 to 40,000 myomectomies each year

in the US.

The oldest of four sisters, Tranzor comesfrom a fami ly o f women with f ibro ids. Her

mother and her mother's s isters commiser-ated, support ing Tranzor's desi re to avoid ahysterectomy and preserve her option for

pregnancy. Most of the doctors she saw

said the same th ing: "Wait and see."

"Finally," she said, " I went for a regular

physical one Fr iday and they found out I

was so anemic they wanted to do a t rans-

fusion the same day. And that' s when I

real ized i t was serious."

Instead of a transfusion, she arrang e d with

the doctor to spend the weekend taking

iron supplements and eat ing iron-rich

foods, including l iver, beef and col lard

greens. "I a te cream of wheat three t imes a

.day al l weekend," Tranzor said.

By Monday that regimen brought her red

blood cel l count back into the safe zone.

In Apri l 2001, a community physic ian found

the fibroids had grown so dramat ically shefelt she could no longer perform amyomectomy for Tranzor, of fer ing her a

hysterectomy - or , as an alternative, a

referral to the Com prehensive Fibroid

Center at UCSFWomen's Health. Two

weeks later, she had her first appointm ent

with Al ison Jacoby, MD, direc tor of the

Fibroid Center.

"Holly had the most and biggest fibroids I

had ever se en," said Jacoby, an assistantclinica l professor of obstetrics, gynecology

and reproductiv e s cience s at UCSF

Medical Center.

A lth ough se lecting the appropriate treatment

depends on factors inclUding size, loca tionand number of fibroids, increasin gly patients

want to keep thei r u teru ses even if theyhave com ple ted childbearing.

"It's very comm on for a woman to come for

a second opinion because her doctor saidshe had no safe option other than hys -

terectomy," Jacoby said. "But for doctors

experienced in removing the f ibroids rather

than the uterus, the patient's surgical r isk

is actually very low."

Patient-care at UCSF'sComprehensive

Fibroid Center is carefully c oordinated to

assure the most appropriate t reatm ent and

follow-up. U t erine arte ry embolizations are

performed by a specialist in inte rventional

radiology, part of the collaboration Jacoby

called essent ial to the center's approach. In2003, the center expects to perform about

50 uterine artery embolizations, 60

myomectomies and 30 hysterectomies.

Regardless of treatment, all Fibroid Center

patie nts are evaluated and counseled by

Jacoby. "My m o m, my sister and I went

together and had al l our q uestionsanswered," Tranzor said. "After the consulta-

tion, I believed that Dr. Jacoby was God-sent

and I had ful l conf idence. A burden was l i f t-ed from my shoulders."

Tranzor scheduled her surgery to coincide

with the Thanksg iv ing break from her

graduate stu dies. It took nearly s ix hours

for Jacoby to meticulously remove the 21

fibroid s th at h ad e xp anded Tranzor'suterus an d w ere pressing on her rib cage.

The fibroids varied in s ize, but the largest

w a s 1 2 cen tim e te rs - a bo ut th e size of

a cantaloupe.

With help from her family Tranzor's recov-

ery went smoothly. Today, Tranzor, 39,works as an underwriter for a major insur-ance company. Her menstrual cycle is nor-

m al and she has more than enough energyto work out .

" I don't know i f I can carry children, "shesa id, "but a t least I st il l have the opt ion.

Dr. Jacoby gave me hope, and hopeful ly

I'l l be able to get marr ied and have kidso ne d ay - soo n ."

For more in formation about the F ibro id Center

or women's hea lth , please caI/885-7788.