holly tranzor
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8/14/2019 Holly Tranzor
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Holly Tranzor
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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.