Dealing With Fibroids

Fibroids are tumours that are formed in the uterus. Therefore, they are also called uterine fibroids (or leiomyomas). These fibroids grow from the cells that form the muscles of the uterus. They grow on the uterine walls and can be pushed to the bladder or small intestine.

The size of fibroids can vary. They can be as small as pea or as large as a football. Sometimes large fibroids may close the mouth of the uterus. In such cases, if a woman gets pregnant then she has to get a cesarean delivery done.

Formation of fibroid is said to occur when some hormonal changes occur in the woman’s body due to any reason. When a woman reaches the menopause her oestrogen level decrease, which cause the fibroids to shrink. But exact causes for the development of fibroids are still not known and thereby no steps can be taken to reduce the risk of having them.

Some symptoms such as painful or irregular periods, heavy bleeding during periods, pelvic pain, feeling of heaviness in the lower abdomen and constipation can be due to the presence of fibroids. However, sometimes a lady might not even know that she is having a fibroid.

Fibroids are also said to reduce fertility that is these can lead to miscarriage, premature delivery and even make a woman infertile.

The doctors make the diagnosis of fibroids by doing some internal check-ups and also by ultrasound.

Treatment depends upon the effects caused by the presence of such tumours. Some fibroids remain untreated because these cause no problems at all.

A number of treatment options are present nowadays for fibroids. Certain medicines are tried to reduce the oestrogen levels so that fibroids shrink by themselves. Otherwise surgery is done to take out the fibroids and if its size is too large then uterus can be removed from the woman’s body (only if she has no problem with infertility).

It is worthy to mention here that fibroids are usually non-cancerous. Some growth on the inner lining of the uterus may cause cancer and not the fibroids.