Fibroid

What are uterine fibroids?
Uterine fibroids are tumors or lumps made of muscle cells and other tissue that grow within the wall of the uterus. Fibroids may grow as a single tumor or in clusters.A single fibroid can be less than one inch in size or can grow to eight inches across or more. A bunch or cluster of fibroids can also vary in size.

What causes uterine fibroids?
Currently, we know little about what causes uterine fibroids. Scientists have a number of theories, but none of these ideas explains fibroids completely. Most likely, fibroids are the end result of many factors interacting with each other. These factors could be genetic, hormonal, environmental, or a combination of all three. Once we know the cause or causes of fibroids, our efforts to find a cure or even prevent fibroids will move ahead more quickly.

Is a Fibroid Cancerous?
Uterine fibroid tumors are benign growths, and are only very rarely malignant. Less than one percent develop into uterine cancer. These very rare occurrences generally occur in women during menopause. The vast majority of leiomyomas are not life threatening, although some can cause health complications. Having fibroids does not increase your risk for uterine cancer.

What are the treatments for uterine fibroids?
If you have uterine fibroids, but show no symptoms or have no problems, you may not need any treatment. Your health care provider will check the fibroids at your routine gynecological exam to see if they have grown. Also, because fibroids are dependent on hormones, your fibroids may decrease in size during/after menopause.If you have pain now-and-then or feels mild symptoms, your health care provider may suggest pain medication, ranging from over-the-counter remedies to strong prescription drugs.

Who gets uterine fibroids?
Most of the time, fibroids grow in women of childbearing age. Research studies estimate that doctors diagnose up to 30 percent of women of childbearing age with uterine fibroids; but, because some women show no symptoms of fibroids, as many as 77 percent of women of childbearing age could have the condition, without knowing it. We don’t know exactly how many new cases of fibroids occur in a year, nor do we know how many women have fibroids at any one time.There have also been reports of rare cases in which young girls who have not yet started their periods (pre-pubertal) had small fibroids. Researchers have also found that fibroids sometimes run in families. Researchers now recognize several risk factors for uterine fibroids.

Current statistics place African American women at three to five times greater risk than white women for fibroids. Women who are overweight or obese for their height (based on body mass index or BMI*) are also at slightly higher risk for fibroids than women who are average weight for their height. Women who have given birth appear to be at lower risk for uterine fibroids. But, because we don’t know what causes fibroids, we also don’t know what increases or decreases the risk.

Are there any pregnancy complications involved?
Most leiomyomas do not interfere with pregnancy, but size and location can cause complications. The extra blood flow to the womb during pregnancy can stimulate tumor growth. Occasionally, caesarean sections may be required to counteract complications. Possible complications include miscarriage, premature contractions, and premature labor.

Infomation extracted from here and here.