When Should You Treat Fibroids? Watchful Waiting vs. Taking Action
Being diagnosed with fibroids doesn’t automatically mean you need treatment. Many fibroids are discovered incidentally during routine pelvic exams or imaging for other reasons — and many never cause symptoms significant enough to warrant intervention. But the flip side is equally important: too many women suffer with fibroid symptoms for years because they’re told to […]
What Is an ABI Test? A Patient’s Guide to Peripheral Artery Disease Screening
Of all the medical tests available for early disease detection, the ankle-brachial index may be the simplest, most affordable, and most underutilized. It takes 15 minutes, involves no needles or contrast dye, requires no preparation, causes zero discomfort — and it can detect peripheral artery disease years before symptoms become limb-threatening. Yet millions of Americans […]
Anal Fissures vs. Hemorrhoids: How to Tell the Difference and Get the Right Treatment
Both conditions involve the anal area. Both can cause bleeding. Both can cause pain. And patients frequently confuse one for the other — or assume that any anal symptom is “just hemorrhoids.” But anal fissures and hemorrhoids are fundamentally different conditions with different causes, different pain patterns, and different treatment approaches. Getting the right diagnosis […]
Knee Pain and Sleep: How Osteoarthritis Disrupts Rest and What You Can Do
An estimated 70% of people with knee osteoarthritis report that their pain disrupts their sleep. This isn’t just an inconvenience: poor sleep amplifies pain sensitivity, impairs immune function, worsens mood, and creates a vicious cycle in which pain disrupts sleep and poor sleep intensifies pain. Understanding why knee OA pain worsens at night reveals important […]
Fibroids and Back Pain: The Pelvic Symptom Women Don’t Connect to Their Uterus
Lower back pain is one of the most common complaints in medicine: the kind of symptom that sends millions of Americans to orthopedists, chiropractors, physical therapists, and pain management specialists every year. The usual suspects are investigated: disc disease, facet arthropathy, muscle strain, sciatica. Imaging is ordered. Treatment is prescribed. And for a significant number […]
Hemorrhoids in Young Adults: Why This Isn’t Just a Condition for Older Patients
When you picture a typical hemorrhoid patient, you probably imagine someone in their 60s or 70s. Hemorrhoids are supposed to be an “older person’s problem”: something that comes with age, like reading glasses and lower back stiffness. Except that’s not what the clinical data shows. Hemorrhoidal disease affects adults across the entire age spectrum, and […]
Preparing for Your GAE Procedure: A Complete Pre- and Post-Procedure Guide
You’ve had your consultation with Dr. Chun, reviewed your imaging, discussed the evidence, and decided to move forward with genicular artery embolization. You know how the procedure works and what the clinical data shows. Now you want to know the practical details: what to do before, what happens on the day, and what recovery actually looks like. This guide […]
UFE vs. Myomectomy: Comparing Two Uterus-Preserving Fibroid Treatments
If you want your fibroids treated but you want to keep your uterus, two main options are available: uterine fibroid embolization (UFE) and myomectomy. Both preserve the uterus. Both are effective. Both have robust clinical evidence behind them. But they work in fundamentally different ways, and the right choice depends on your specific clinical situation, […]
Understanding Hemorrhoid Recurrence: Why Symptoms Return and What to Do Next
You had the banding. Or the surgery. Or the embolization. Things got better, maybe significantly. The bleeding stopped, the discomfort eased, and you thought the problem was behind you. Then, six months or two years later, the familiar symptoms start creeping back: blood on the tissue, that sensation of pressure, the dread of another flare-up. […]
GAE and Obesity: How Weight Affects Knee Osteoarthritis and Your Treatment Options
Obesity is the single most modifiable risk factor for knee osteoarthritis and one of the biggest barriers to accessing surgical treatment when OA becomes severe. This creates one of the cruelest paradoxes in orthopedic medicine: the patients who need treatment most are often told they can’t have it until they lose weight, but their knee […]