Dr. Paul Indman:  I am Dr. Paul Indman from the Global Congress of Minimally Invasive Surgery in Las Vegas and this is Hope Waltman. Hope founded the Hope for Fibroids Foundation and more recently has been working with OBGYN.net in running the fibroid forum for women. Hope, what was your general idea with this forum?

Ms. Hope Waltman:  Well, OBGYN.net has wonderful doctors on it and they were able to have the ability to create the forum for women and doctors to both participate on. This is a great opportunity for women and families.

Dr. Paul Indman:  What types of questions were you thinking would be posted there?

Ms. Hope Waltman:  I was figuring on more general fibroid questions, not so much diagnosis questions, but just more general questions because until a doctor sees the patient and actually goes and does tests, they cannot get into a therapy or treatment, really deep into it.

Dr. Paul Indman:  Now did you envision this mostly women asking questions of physicians or women answering questions for other women and it going back and forth between women who have fibroids or where is the main focus here?

Ms. Hope Waltman:  I was hoping it would be a lot of women interaction, talking to each other, patient-type of communication and, of course, there are times when we are going to need a few doctors come in and give us information.

Dr. Paul Indman:  One of the things that I am very happy to do is answer questions about fibroids in general. When we get into women wanting diagnosis or what should I do, it is fraught with hazard.

I have recently received, someone sent me records of an ultrasound and it said multiple fibroids and I ordered an MRI before she came out and the MRI was read as multiple fibroids, so she came out. I looked at the MRI. She did not have fibroids at all. The ultrasound was misread, the MRI was misread. She had adenomyosis. Had I given her advice based on the lab reports or the x-ray reports, I would have given her totally inappropriate advice. It would have been wrong. Sometimes a fibroid that may be huge in a woman who is four foot ten, may be tiny in a woman who is six foot ten. Many, many factors determine how a fibroid should be treated and we cannot rely on records. We cannot rely on history. So when someone says, gee, I have back pain, what should I do? The answer is see a doctor. I have three fibroids, I think they are big, what should I do? See a doctor.

The one thing I would ask for women posting to this forum, please do not ask for a diagnosis over the internet. It cannot be done. I am happy to answer general questions but when you are asking for a diagnosis, see your physician. If you are not comfortable with your physician, there are many physicians you can find through OBGYN.net who can help you find a competent physician. Do you think that is realistic, Hope?

Ms. Hope Waltman:  Yes, it is. Yes. I think most women will find out that that is what they are going to run into, also. I think it is great that you expressed that to us here about the few things that women need to watch for and also the forum is only for information so that you can go back and talk to your doctor and get the tests that you need.

Dr. Paul Indman:  Right. I feel that if you are not comfortable with your doctor, then you can look for other physicians, you can find physicians you can be more comfortable with. Again, please, please submit questions of general, theoretical questions, hypothetical questions, general questions, but do not ask for advice on the forum. Thank you very much.

Courtesy of OBGYN.net  (Roberta Speyer, CEO, Medispecialty, Inc.)