LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UAMS) — It’s something a lot of women experience. Years of pain or bleeding that can only be relieved with an invasive surgery. Now that’s no longer the case. Dr. T. Glenn Pait explains in this week’s Today’s Health.

For over two years, Debra Frazier lived in pain. “Heavy bleeding, blood clots, um, very pain in my stomach, very very hard pains in my stomach. so severe I’ve had to go to the ER and get a shot, the pain is that bad,” Frazier said.

After meeting with Dr. Mollie Meeks at UAMS, Frazier was told she had fibroids in her uterus.

Fibroids start as a single cell, and eventually create a firm mass within a woman’s uterus. They occur in roughly 40 percent of women, but only a small percentage are symptomatic. Hysterectomies have been the treatment for many, but there’s also a far less invasive option – uterine artery embilization.

“This is much less invasive, you just have a little hole in your artery as opposed to an incision with staples or stitches and the recovery time is significantly less, someone could come in and go right back to work in two to three days,” Meeks said.

During the process, a tiny incision is made, and a catheter moves along the femoral artery to reach the uterine artery. Tiny plastic polyvinyl alcohol particles are lodged into the blood supply. the catheter is removed and the process is repeated as needed. Meeks says Frazier’s prognosis is great and she shouldn’t need any further treatment.

“She had sort of medium to large sized fibroids her symptoms improved, her MRI post procedure showed that they all shrunk up,” Meeks says.

Frazier says she is pleased with the results, and happy her life isn’t controlled by the fibroids. “I can go places, I don’t have to worry about trying to run to the restroom. I can just, I live a normal life now.”

Another benefit to the less invasive procedure – women can still get pregnant and deliver a child after having uterine artery embolization.