Angeline Gifford of South Park got so big with her second pregnancy that when it came time for her emergency cesarean section 14 years ago, medical personnel were guessing just how much the baby would weigh: 10 pounds? 11? 13, 14 or 15?

"It turned out the baby was 7 pounds, 8 ounces," Mrs. Gifford said. "The rest was all fibroids."

Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths in the wall of the uterus that can be very small or as large as a cantaloupe.

The tumors are very common: According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, at least 25 percent of American women have symptoms typical of fibroids, and some experts have estimated that as many as 77 percent could be affected. African-American women have a three-to-five-times greater risk than white women.

Percentages like that, coupled with the miseries that can accompany living with them -- heavy periods, bloating, pelvic pain, constipation -- are part of what prompted gynecologist Richard Guido and interventional radiologists Philip Orons and Kevin McCluskey to found the Fibroid Treatment Center at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC in October 2008.

So is convenience.

The center, which is giving a Community Health Talk on fibroid treatment options at Magee at 6:30 p.m. on April 29, offers a sort of one-stop-shopping spot for women looking for diagnosis of symptoms and/or treatment or removal of the growths.

"It's frustrating for patients to have to see one doctor for an ultrasound, then go see another some other day for an MRI," Dr. Guido said.

With the center, that's not necessary. A patient can have an ultrasound at 11 a.m. and see Dr. Guido to talk about options at 1 p.m. If she has chosen to have a uterine fibroid embolization, which is done by interventional radiologists, she can meet with Dr. McCluskey or Dr. Orens by 1:45 p.m.

In the embolization procedure, the radiologist uses a catheter inserted into the femoral artery in the groin to reach into the tiny branches of the two uterine arteries. There, he releases tiny particles of plastic or gelatin sponge about the size of grains of sand, which block blood flow to the fibroids. The tumors then shrink over a period of time.

"Some patients want to talk some more; some need additional time to think," Dr. Guido said. Others choose their procedure that same day.

Treatments available range from so-called "watchful waiting" and hormonal therapy to the newer embolization. There also are minimally invasive surgeries such as laparoscopic myomectomies, which are done through multiple tiny incisions, and hysteroscopy, in which access to the fibroid is through the cervix.

Hysterectomies, or removal of the uterus, which used to be the conventional treatment for most fibroid patients, are still available and can be done laparoscopically or by the conventional abdominal incision. They remain the only absolutely fool-proof cure, although Dr. Guido said, "Our results with uterine fibroid embolization is very high."

"We try to do minimally invasive procedures when feasible," he added. "The national averages for abdominal [hysterectomies] is somewhere around 60 percent. It's much lower than that here."

Ms. Gifford said she was considered a high-risk candidate for a hysterectomy because she has a blood clotting disorder.

She also tried several other options over the years, as her heavy bleeding problem became increasingly severe and near-constant. She had a couple of D&C's, or dilation and curettage, a procedure in which the cervix is dilated and an instrument inserted to scrape the uterine wall. She also took a drug named Lupron, but use is limited to six months because it causes a temporary menopause.

At that point, Dr. Guido told her about uterine fibroid embolizations. "I had nothing to lose; it was minimally invasive," she said. Dr. Guido referred her to Dr. Orons.

The entire process takes an hour, Dr. McCluskey said one day after he had done the procedure on a woman with a grapefruit-sized fibroid.

"It's a shorter recovery time," he said as he ticked off the advantages. "You're back to work much faster. And some women want to keep their uterus. That's one thing nice, it gives them an option."

On the downside, he added, "it's typically not for women who want to get pregnant as it can damage the uterine wall." Also, most patients have a day or two of cramps after the procedure.

But Ms. Gifford, 53 and a part-time paralegal Downtown, was thrilled with the results of her procedure Nov. 14.

"I was back on my feet in three to five days, back doing normal activities," she said. "As for cramping, I'd say it lasted maybe two days and then subsided." She remembers rarely using the morphine drip she was given to take home.

But the best part came in December with her first post-embolization period, which lasted just five or six days. The second in January was the same. "Compared to how I'd been bleeding it was nothing. I've got a new life. Total freedom."

When she went to see Dr. Orons for a checkup, "I told him, 'I love ya! Where have you been all my life?'

"It changed my life. He's a miracle worker."

Reservations to the Community Health Talk are being taken at 412-802-8299.

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