Sadly, my wife Rachel became ill in February 2022 and passed away in July, 2022. Very sad for me and our three sons. We were married for 52 years, so there is a big hole in my life and heart.
I went on family medical leave in February and then, when it was not clear what was going to happen, I retired from clinical practice July 1st, 2022. I continue to teach gynecology to UCSD residents, but I no longer go to the operating room.
Many women have told me that this website was very helpful to them when dealing with fibroid issues. In the past year, the website crashed for technical reasons and is now up and running again. I plan to continue the website and will make an ongoing effort to update the information. The information is based on clinical studies and there are no commercial interests or biases.
I’ve trained a number of gynecologists in both the technical surgical procedures and the value of uterine (and ovarian) preservation. Dr. Shira Varon and Dr. Charlotte Pickett at UCSD and Dr. Valentina Triana-Rodriguez and Dr. Brianne Romeroso at UCLA are skilled surgeons and interested in taking care of women with fibroids. In addition, Dr. Pickett is a fellowship-trained minimally-invasive gynecologic surgeon (MIGS) with expertise in treating women with endometriosis as well as women with uterine fibroids. I will invite them to participate in the website with their clinical expertise in their areas of interest.
I hope you find this website helpful.
And, as always, I wish you good health,
Bill Parker, MD
If You Have Uterine Fibroids
By William H. Parker, MD
If you are visiting this website, it is likely that you or someone close to you has uterine fibroids…
Recent developments in gynecology have expanded the treatment alternatives now available to women with fibroids. I wrote and designed this website to provide women with comprehensive and easy-to-understand information about fibroids and state-of-the-art treatments available.
I am a Voluntary Clinical Professor of the Department of Reproductive Medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, former President of an international minimally invasive gynecological organization (AAGL) and former Director of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery at the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. Most importantly, I have been performing and teaching all the available surgical techniques covered in this website for many years, and this experience has allowed me to stay in the forefront of the field.
The medical information available to women regarding fibroids in books, on the internet or from doctors is often contradictory and confusing. In my own efforts to understand all the issues related to fibroids, I undertook a year-long review of more than 300 papers from the medical literature. As a result of that review, I published a two-part article in the internationally renowned journal Fertility and Sterility. For those who wish to see the original articles, they may be accessed here: Etiology, Symptomatology and Diagnosis of Uterine Myomas and Uterine Myomas: Management. Much of the information on this website is adapted from those articles and it is information you will want to know before choosing the path to take for any fibroid-associated problems.
The present pressures in healthcare leave many doctors little time or incentive to learn new medical developments, and they have even less time to explain treatment alternatives to patients. For women who need treatment, many treatment options exist and you need to search out a doctor who both understands all the available options and who is also skilled at performing these treatments (or the rare doctor who will refer you to another physician who does have the necessary skill and experience).
I hope that this website will have the answers you’ve been looking for and will provide you with a trusted reference to turn to. And I wish you good health.
Voluntary Clinical Professor, Department of Reproductive Medicine, UC San Diego School of Medicine
Page last updated: January, 2018
