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3) Uterine Fibroid
What is uterine fibroid?
Fibroid is a non-cancerous growth
arising from the muscle wall of the womb. It is one of the most
common gynecological conditions and is estimated to be present in
about 20 - 30 per cent of the women.
Most fibroids grow within the wall of
the uterus. Based on where they grow :
Submucosal (pronounced sub-myou-co-sul)
fibroids grow inside the cavity of the womb. Intramural (pronounced
in-tra-myur-ul) fibroids grow within the wall of the womb.
Subserosal (pronounced sub-sir-oh-sul) fibroids grow on the outside
of the uterus.
What are the symptoms of fibroids?
Depending on the size and location of
the fibroids, there may or may not be any symptoms. But fibroids can
cause the following symptoms:
-
Heavy bleeding or painful periods
-
Bleeding in between periods
-
Feeling “full” in the lower abdomen
- sometimes called “pelvic pressure”
-
Urinating often (results from a
fibroid pressing on the bladder)
-
Lower back pain
-
Difficulty to conceive and repeated
miscarriages
What are the treatments for uterine
fibroids?
The treatment depends on the women’s
age, desire for further childbearing, the size of the fibroids, her
symptoms and their severity.
If a woman has uterine fibroids, but has
no symptoms, she may not need any treatment. However a regular check
up is required to see if the fibroids have grown. Fibroids are
hormone dependant and hence usually decrease in size after
menopause.
If the fibroid gives rise to mild
symptoms of pain, your doctor may suggest pain-relievers.
Certain hormonal medications can reduce
the bleeding during menses. Other drugs like GnRh-analogues can be
used temporarily for symptom relief or to reduce the size of the
fibroid before surgery. Mirena coil can be used in some cases to
reduce the bleeding during menses.
Those fibroids that are giving rise to
severe symptoms, are big, or growing in size need to be treated
surgically.
Surgery involves either removing the
fibroids (myomectomy) or the entire womb (hysterectomy). Both of the
procedures can be performed by the laparoscopic approach as well as
by the conventional open surgery depending on the size of the
fibroid, its location, the doctors’ experience and training.
Certain other treatments are now being
tried.
These involve cutting off the blood
supply of the fibroids uterine artery embolization which can be
performed under X-ray guidance.
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