A team of researchers at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston completed a study that found a noninvasive ultrasound procedure effectively shrinks uterine fibroid tumors and treats related symptoms according to an article in the Washington Post. The procedure is called magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery or MRgFUS.

This is exciting news for women diagnosed with uterine fibroid tumors which account for about 33 percent of the over 500,000 hysterectomies performed annually in the US. While these non-cancerous tumors often cause several symptoms that range from excessive menstrual bleeding to pelvic pain or pressure, many other women do not experience any symptoms from their uterine fibroid tumors and wait for natural menopause to occur when the loss of estrogen allows the tumors to shrink without intervention.

According to the Post article, lead study author, Dr. Fiona M. Fennessy, assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and staff radiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital said, "This treatment immediately stops blood flow in the treated fibroid tissue, which results in a significant, sustained decrease in symptoms for up to 12 months."

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