stacydl

There are a few different treatments for fibroids depending on where they are located, your symptoms, and whether or not you are finished having children. I know how you feel, I just had one removed on friday. My fibroid was the cause of two years of infertility, terrible cramps, and very heavy bleeding which caused me to become anemic.
There are three main types of fibroids. The most common are intramural which are in the wall (not really protruding into the uterine cavity or outward towards the pelvic cavity). These can be removed by laparotomy which is an open abdominal surgery with a recovery time of 2-6 weeks.
Then there's subserosal fibroids which are protruding outwardly toward the pelvic cavity. Sometimes these can be removed with laparoscopy which is a minimally invasive surgery where they go through a tiny incision by your navel and remove the tumor. If that's not possible, then they would do the laparotomy.
Then there's the least common which is submucosal which is protruding inward toward the uterine cavity. If more than 50% of it is in the cavity and less than 50% in the wall, it can be removed with hysteroscopic resection which is a minimally invasive procedure which is done through the cervix and the tumor is just shaved off. No incisions, recovery time of a day or so. That's the one I just had and I feel fine. Can't wait to see how my next period is to see if the bleeding is better. Hopefully it will allow a pregnancy to be possible!
There are other treatments as well such as uterine fibroid embolization where they cut off the blood supply for the tumor. There's not a lot of info as to whether pregnancy is likely after that procedure though. There may be others as well.
Then there's always a hysterectomy which would obviously make pregnancy impossible, but until recently it was the most common procedure done for fibroids.
As far as whether it can get better on it's own or with hormone therapy, most likely not until you reach menopause when your estrogen is no longer produced since they supposedly grow on estrogen. Hormone therapy may help for a short time, but the tumors will just grow again when therapy is discontinued.
If you have any questions, I would be glad to help you answer them, because I have done lots of research on the subject (but I am no doctor so talking to your doc is the best advice I can give.)
Take care and good luck. I know how hard living with all that pain and bleeding is. What a nightmare. Many people with fibroids don't even know they have them because they have no symptoms, but if you are having unbearable ones, there are treatment options out there!
Take care
Stacy