Uterine Fibroids: Everything you need to know about them
7 minuteRead
Uterine Fibroids are one of the most common but lesser-known infections. These tumorous growths can cause serious problems. Want to know more about it? Click and read on.
Ladies, do you often ignore too much pain and irregular flow during periods? Yeah! Many of you might think it is normal but do you ever think that there might be types of infection to your uterus or vagina? Maybe or maybe not.
Well, taking care of our pelvic area is as equally important as any other part of our body. However, not much is taught with respect to our reproductive health. Surely, the uterine fibroid is one of those things that we have missed out on.
So, here, we’ll be talking about one common uterine problem called Fibroids.
Wondering what is a Fibroid and how can you deal with it? Here's everything you need to know about uterine fibroids.
What is a Fibroid?
Fibroid or uterine fibroid is a tumorous growth in or around the uterus. It is a benign tumor, not a cancerous one. Again, these growths are NON-CANCEROUS, which means, they are non-likely to cause cancer. In fact, these are somehow made of muscles, fibrous tissues but can be of different sizes.
These often grow during puberty or development stage, especially pregnancy. What do I mean by development age? This is when the body is producing a lot of reproductive hormones especially Estrogen. It can happen to any healthy uterus.
These fibroids start to decrease in size or start shrinking when you move further to the menopause stage when the hormone levels start falling.
What are the categories of Fibroids?
Fibroids fall into 4 categories. Read on to find more about them:
Intramural Fibroid
Intramural, as the name suggests, are the fibroids that are located in the muscular walls of the uterus. If you do feel that your womb is stretching without any reason, this can be the one. Besides, it's the most common fibroid type that can grow larger if ignored.
Subserosal fibroid
This one is what grows outside of the uterus. The outer lining of the uterus is called ‘serosa’, therefore, this one is known as subserosal fibroid. How to know it is the one? This makes your womb grow bigger from one side as compared to the other.
Pedunculated fibroid
Subserosal fibroid sometimes can develop a stem-like structure. This stem is pretty much there to support the tumor. If this happens, you may have a pedunculated fibroid.
Submucosal Fibroid
Some fibroids can literally appear in the middle layer of the muscles of the uterus, aka myometrium. This one is pretty rare mainly because of the location of the disease.
What Are The Causes Of Fibroids?
Moving on, it is very important to understand where this whole fibroid thing is coming from. Well! To be honest, there is no origin of why it happens but what experts have figured out are a few POSSIBLE ways that may be causing this.
Genetic
Do you know fibroid is a common disease amongst African-American women? What is the reason behind this? It's because of their genetic tendencies. However, it’s not like if you are not that community, you can’t have it. If it is something your ancestors had, chances are you are also carrying it with you.
According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, the etiology of these tumors are coming from the genes of women. 40% of uterine fibroid carries some chromosomal abnormalities. These abnormalities are associated with mutation of FH or fumarate hydratase.
Hormones
As we know, fibroids are likely to happen during the reproductive stage. It is because hormonal growth is at its peak during these years. This makes hormonal growth a major reason for having fibroid.
What all experts say is that estrogen sensitivity and progesterone productivity can cause fibroid. If you notice a rapid increase in these tissues, it can be because of multiple reasons. To name a few, it can be due to hormone therapy, pregnancy hormones, or even hormonal release during birth control.
Lack of nutrients
Nutrients are very very important for our health. The major reason that causes fibroids is the lack of fruits in your diet, that too citrus fruits, Not having enough nutrients can increase the chances of having this problem.
Another reason is Vitamin D deficiency. Ensuring your diet has enough Vit D not only lowers the risks but also helps you improve your immune system.
Stress and anxiety
You may think stress can only affect your mental health. If yes, you can’t be more wrong. Stress can be harmful to your sexual health as well. How is this related? Basically, stress or lack of sleep changes the hormonal pattern that encourages many diseases including fibroids.
How to know you have fibroids?
The thing is, fibroids can be symptomatic or asymptomatic. Asymptomatic ones can only be figured out during pelvic examination or ultrasounds, However, if you are experiencing these things, you probably have a fibroid. So, what are uterine fibroid symptoms?
- Heavy bleeding or blood clots during periodic vaginal discharge.
- Pain in the pelvis or area around it.
- Lower back pain
- Fullness or pressure in your lower abdomen
- Too much menstrual cramps
- Swollen abdomen
- Frequent urination
- Painful sex
It’s not like if you experience all or any of these, you must be having fibroid. Some of these symptoms are normal for so many ladies. However, it’s always best to consult a doctor. So, to be on the safer side, if you experience these issues, do go for a pelvic MRI, lab test, or Ultrasound.
Recommended treatment
Once you discover you have fibroids in your uterus, what next? Obviously, it's time for treatment. The time you visit a gynecologist, they will give you a few ways to treat your fibroid problem. What are these?
Encourage monitoring
Sometimes, fibroid starts decreasing especially during menopause. Therefore, doctors will firstly wait for some changes and improvements instead of going for some medical procedure.
Home remedies
Home remedies are the best to keep anything in control. Of course, it only works to some extent. When it comes to the fibroid, these are some ways to make you feel better. One of the best ways is to keep a hot water bag up on your stomach. This eases the pain and will surely give you some relief.
Medication
Medications are the most common ways to deal with fibroids. These medicines can be used for different purposes. Be it to decrease pain, lower estrogen level, or even promote some stage of menopause.
For instance, medicines like ibuprofen can be a big pain reliever. Of course, you can’t have it without your doctor’s consultation. Hence, your gynecologist will most probably hand you a list of prescriptions that you would have to take for a few days to kill fibroid(s).
Therapy and diet
As you know stress and diet are crazy causes of fibroids, there are a few therapies that your doctors might suggest. Most of these are related to control hormone levels.
Surgery
Surgeries are a last resort for treating uterine fibroids. Uterine myomectomy is one such surgery that includes the removal of fibroid growth. Laparoscopic surgery is another one in which they remove these tumors in a minimally invasive way. Hysterectomy is very rarely used because it includes surgical removal of the uterus which means not being able to bear children.
Pregnant women with Fibroid, what to do?
What is the relation between fibroid and pregnancy? We know pregnancy generates hormones but what will be the effects if you have fibroids?
Conceiving the child
If you are trying but dealing with fibroid, you must consult the doctor before conceiving. What happens is, if your doctors go for a treatment, chances are it can affect your uterus. Hence, making it hard to have a baby.
During pregnancy
Even if you succeed, there still can be complications and it can affect the health of the child. If the fibroid is outside the walls of the uterus or small in size, there is no harm to the pregnancy. However, if it's on the inner lining, it can be pretty dangerous.
At the end of pregnancy
What happens during labor? Well! Fibroids can be pretty disturbing during delivery. It can be a hurdle in generating labor pain and normal delivery, This is the reason why most doctors prefer cesarean treatment for labor. Thereafter, a fibroid can lead to too much bleeding after postpartum which is again harmful to the mother.
No matter what, if you are planning to have a baby, you must visit an expert. Someone who can guide you with the best way to do that, even if you have a fibroid.
Fibroid specialists in major cities of India
I keep talking about specialists and how you must consult them. You are probably looking for some experts in your city. However, I am not gonna leave you hanging because down there is a list of specialists you can reach out to.
Pune
Mumbai
Chennai
Delhi
Bangalore
Conclusion
Fibroids can be nothing but can be a big hazard to your health. So, it's better to know what exactly it is and how to get rid of it. Now that you know everything about it, it's time to get the best treatment from trusted doctors.
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