Can Qigong Help With Fibroid Symptoms? My 100 Day Experiment
When I finally discovered I had fibroids, years of strange symptoms suddenly made complete sense.
Pain. Inflammation. Exhaustion. Brain fog. The lumpy-bumpy landscape of my lower abdomen. By the time I had my first ultrasound scan I was so unwell I’d been struggling to get out of bed or do really basic daily tasks.
Eventually imaging showed a large posterior-wall fibroid and several smaller fibroids.
And I had a decision to make.
Surgery was an option but there are long waiting lists here in the UK. I needed to take action immediately.
So the question switched from, How do I get these things out of me?
to…
What can I do, right now, to help myself feel better in my body?
I decided to practise my own medicine
I'm a Medical Qigong and energy medicine practitioner, so I began a 100-day experiment.
I started working with myself using the practices I ordinarily bring to my work with other people: Medical Qigong, energy medicine, movement, visualisation, hypnosis, ritual, creativity and — perhaps most importantly — paying extraordinarily close attention to what my body was needing on a daily basis.
I wasn't trying to prove that Qigong could shrink a fibroid.
I'm still under conventional medical care, and I'm open to whatever decisions I may need to make about treatment.
My experiment was about quality of life IN THAT MOMENT…
Could I support my energy?
Could I reduce some of the suffering surrounding what was happening?
Could I become more collaborative with my body instead of spending the next chapter of my life fighting it?
What happened surprised me
Within the first few days, my energy began to change.
As the weeks passed, I experienced periods with significantly less pain, improvements in my sleep and digestion, less bloating and considerably more energy.
But something else was happening that was harder to measure.
I stopped being frightened of my body.
Instead of experiencing every sensation as evidence that something had gone terribly wrong, I became curious.
What does my body need today?
What gives me energy?
What drains it?
What happens when I listen?
The experiment that began because of my fibroids gradually became something much bigger.
It started changing how I thought about my work, my creativity, my relationships, my body and the next chapter of my life.
Eventually I realised I wasn't really conducting a 100-day healing experiment.
I was rewilding.
And that's how A Hundred Days of Rewilding began.
This is my personal experience, not evidence that Medical Qigong treats or shrinks fibroids. Fibroids can require medical assessment and treatment, and I continue to work alongside conventional healthcare.
But my diagnosis taught me something I don't think I'll forget:
There is an enormous difference between having something happening in your body and being at war with your body because of it.
For me, Qigong helped create another possibility.