Women with symptomatic fibroids can heave a sigh of relief as two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine unveil that short-term therapy with ulipristal acetate, which is commonly used for emergency contraception, is effective for shrinking uterine fibroids and controlling the heavy uterine bleeding, reports MSN.

Researchers from the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels investigated the efficacy and safety of oral ulipristal acetate for treatment of fibroids before surgery, notes the web portal.

In the first study, researchers found that when women with symptomatic fibroids took 5 mg or 10 mg of morning after pill for 13 weeks, the menstrual bleeding reduced and their fibroid shrank. In contrast, in the second study scientists observed chances of experiencing hot flushes were fewer in women who took a dose of EllaOne, compared to those who received injections of Lupron.

“Women with fibroids need more alternatives to hysterectomy”, MSN quoted Dr. Elizabeth Stewart, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as saying. The endocrinologist, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new studies, told the web portal that these studies are a step towards medical therapy for fibroids, but further studies are required for the validation.

Commenting on the finding where emergency birth control was found to cause precancerous changes in the lining of the uterus, Stewart said these changes appear to be reversible, adding that if we can reverse the changes and take care of the symptoms as well, then the treatment can be used for long term.

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