[12] Many women who experience postpartum hemorrhage may be successfully treated with medication or uterine balloon tamponade.

The advantage of somewhat faster recovery time is offset by a higher rate of minor complications and an increased likelihood of requiring surgical intervention within two to five years of the initial procedure.

[16] An analysis of 15,000 women found that those who had myomectomy required fewer additional procedures, including hysterectomies, to treat fibroids over the next five years than those who had uterine artery embolization.

[27] A clinic visit can then be made with the interventional radiologist performing the uterine artery embolization so that a thorough history and physical exam can be taken.

[25] Under fluoroscopic guidance, a catheter is then introduced into the artery and used to select the uterine vessels for subsequent embolization.

Once at the level of the uterine artery an angiogram with contrast is performed to confirm placement of the catheter, and the embolizing agent (spheres or beads) is released.

More recently, there has been support for UAE as an outpatient procedure, but many doctors choose an overnight admission for pain control.

[9] The vast majority of women who undergo UAE experience elimination of abnormal uterine bleeding and improvement in bulk symptoms.

Additionally, they found that rates of pregnancy-related complications in women who underwent UAE were similar to that of the general population.

[31] Despite these findings, there is still a lack of randomized control trials that directly compare the outcomes of myomectomy and UAE for fibroids, so future studies are needed to determine which procedure yields better results.

[33] Since then studies have shown that UAE is a safe and effective procedure for postpartum hemorrhage with control of bleeding in greater than 90% of women.