Much of what Sinsull says about recovering from surgery is going to be true of any abdominal surgery, including myomectomy (with exceptions such as hysteroscopic resection of small fibroids on the inside of the womb and laparoscopic removal of some pedunculated extra-mural fibroids growing outside the womb on a stalk).

"Watching and waiting": Fibroids can often be managed conservatively. Waiting and waiting IS appropriate in many circumstances, but sometimes women put up with far too much deterioration in their quality of life for too long. I have heard of women who put off hysterectomy for years feeling so much better once they recovered from the operation and regretting not having done it sooner. (I've already said hysterectomy is a last resort, there are other procedures that can be tried first) Severe anaemia should not be tolerated for long if it is not sufficiently alleviated by iron and vitamin supplementation. In the case of large and growing fibroids, be aware that both surgical and less-invasive methods such as embolisation become more difficult or inadvisable with large fibroids. So if you have any fibroid dimensions in the 10 cm+ range, you should be thinking of acting sooner rather than later. Small submucosal fibroids on the inner lining of the uterus can be responsible for very heavy bleeding and if it is possible to remove them hysteroscopically through the vagina, that less-invasive procedure needs to be done when the fibroids are still small. By the way, I think R-J in Oz should look into UAE again (she can join the yahoo group "embo" if she wants to discuss her situation in more detail; there have been participants from Australia).

Menopause doesn't always sufficiently alleviate pressure symptoms from bulky fibroids
CarolC wrote that her doctor "never even mentioned the possibility of waiting until menopause to see if they would shrink (I'm 49... I might not have to wait all that long to find out)." I had UAE at age 49 and I am still menstruating at 54.

"About the Uterine Artery Embolisation, I'm a bit concerned about that one. One of the sites I encountered gave some statistics about women who had bad reactions to the particles that were put in their blood as a part of the process. Being as allergy-prone and chemical intolerant as I seem to be, that would be a big consideration for me."
There is at least one organisation which promotes myomectomy and severely and unfairly "disses" UAE. There are sometimes complications with UAE as there are with any medical procedure, but overall it has a good safety record. The PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) particles used to block the arteries in the fibroids become locked up in scar tissue in the small arteries and should not migrate outside the womb. UAE has only been used as a fibroid treatment for about 10 years, but PVA has been used for some 30 years for other forms of embolisation. I don't believe any of the radiologists I have seen writing about the topic consider chemical intolerance one of the contraindications to having UAE treatment, so do explore this issue further before dismissing this treatment option.

I haven't read Christine Northrup's books. I've read criticisms that she makes women feel guilty when they can't resolve their health difficulties through attention to diet, exercise and emotional healing; while she herself resorted to myomectomy. Improvement in your diet and physical and emotional health is going to benefit you, but you may still have fibroid problems. Vegetarians (etc) get symptomatic fibroids too (even if less of us do statistically). I went to a herbalist for 6 months, but he did warn me that large fibroids aren't likely to respond well to herbal medication; I do find that the whole area of vitamin, herbal, etc treatments is very confusing, lots of anecdotal advice, little documentation.

Hysterectomy – there are hysterectomies and hysterectomies. Most surgeons will remove ovaries if you are over 45 – though many women don't complete menopause until their mid or late 50s and the ovaries continue to produce some hormones for up to 12 years afterwards. The rationale for removing the ovaries is to safeguard against the possibility of developing ovarian cancer (though there is still a tiny chance of getting ovarian cancer in epithelial cells outside the ovaries!) and that HRT is available. But unless there are signs of ovarian disease or you have fibroids covering/intertwined with your ovaries, you should be able to elect to keep your ovaries. As someone else mentioned, they may fail prematurely anyway – but at least that might be gradual rather than abrupt.
You also have to consider whether or not to retain your cervix and whether to have vaginal or abdominal surgery. I think if your fibroids are small enough for vaginal hysterectomy, you should be looking for other ways to control the bleeding rather than removing your womb. Recovery is quicker from vaginal hysterectomy but abdominal surgery allows for fuller repair of the anatomy supporting your organs (some women have hysterectomy because fibroids are pressing on their bladder, but find they have incontinence problems due to weakness after surgery). I don't think a woman could keep her cervix with vaginal hystectomy, and the cervix is probably helpful for physical support and for sexual satisfaction. The scientific evidence such as it is seems to me to inconclusive.

Rich-Joy mentioned www.uterinefibroids.com this is a useful site with much info on various treatment options. Its proprietor Carla Dionne is head of the National Uterine Fibroid Foundation in the US (www.nuff.org) and also the moderator of the uterinefibroids (one word) Yahoo group. If you have fibroids and want to discuss the issues and experiences further, I do suggest joining this group. It has a large volume of mail, so be sure to opt of either the daily digest or website access only rather than receiving individual posts. If you are in the UK or Ireland, it is also worthwhile joining the UK fibroid discussion group at Smartgroups. Also in the UK, the Fibroid Network charity works out of London and has a website: http://www.fibroidnetwork.co.uk/ . There is also a German-language fibroid discussion group and I'm sure there are others.