Fibroids Green Tea Study: What You Need to Know

For years, women believed that green tea could help manage fibroid symptoms. Often, these natural remedies weren't taken seriously. Yet now, new research shows that fibroids green tea remedies could treat or even prevent uterine fibroids. Let’s take a closer look!

Fibroids Green Tea Treatment: New Findings

As you may know, fibroids are benign uterine tumors. They’re formed from muscle cells and connective tissue. They range in size from tiny to the circumference of a grapefruit, or even bigger. The majority of women develop at least one fibroid by the age of 50, but Black, Hispanic and Asian women have a higher risk for fibroids.

Now, some women never experience symptoms related to their growths, but as many as 25% do. And, for these women, fibroid treatment is often the only hope for a return to normal life.

For far too long, women were told that hysterectomy was the only treatment for fibroids. Today, there are more options. These include myomectomy, surgical removal of your tumors; and uterine fibroid embolization, or UFE, a minimally invasive, catheter-directed treatment that shrinks fibroids by cutting off their blood supply. Recently, thanks to new research, we’ve also learned that a green tea compress may help ease fibroid symptoms.

Fibroids Green Tea Study Findings

Before exploring the recent findings, one thing needs to be clear: this research was preclinical. And that means it wasn’t tested on actual patients. Rather, the results were observed on lab-grown fibroid cells.

And here are the results in question. Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine discovered that a green tea compound called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) has the potential to prevent or treat fibroids. Specifically, EGCG seemed to reduce fibronectin protein levels of fibronectin, while also disrupting pathways involved in fibroid tumor cell growth.

While all that is promising, there’s a catch: the results didn’t come from sipping cups of green tea. Instead, they were the result of direct EGCG treatment, meaning any therapies down the line would likely be in the form of oral medications, not tea bags.

In sharing these results, lead study author James Segars Jr. said, “The purpose of this study was to examine how EGCG works to treat and prevent uterine fibroids. There is no standard protocol for uterine fibroid disease management or prevention, no tools to prevent their growth, so finding a safe nonsurgical therapy is important.”

Luckily, researchers believes this study may lead to newer, non-surgical treatment options! Co-author Soriful Islam says, “The results from this study show that EGCG targets many signaling pathways involved in fibroid growth, particularly the extracellular matrix.” Therefore, in the future, “EGCG supplements could be an easily accessible and natural way to relieve symptoms and slow fibroid growth.”

Minimally Invasive Fibroid Treatment

For now, the results on green tea and fibroids are not yet medically applicable. Still, you have non-surgical treatment options that can help relieve your fibroid symptoms and shrink or eliminate your tumors. Ready to find relief from fibroids? Reach out to our fibroid specialists in Dallas, TX to see if you’re a good candidate for UFE!