HealthChat Women’s Health
Fibroids – The Mystery Revealed
Fibroids are something over 5% of women have and yet outside
medical circles very often they remain a mystery to many
people. Essentially they are benign growths of the muscle
forming the wall of the womb. Often the uterine wall will
hold more than one of these growths and they can occur in
various sizes. Indeed some have been reported to be so large
they fill much of the abdomen, but this is very rare and
usually fibroids are detected long before they can reach
this size. Furthermore they have a tendency to increase
in number and size as women grow older.
The important thing to stress is that these are benign
tumours. They are not in themselves life threatening but
in a small percentage of women they can cause heavy and
prolonged periods; pain; and fertility problems. With regards
to the latter they can be troublesome during childbirth
when they may block the descent of the baby.
Fortunately, in the majority of women no treatment is needed
unless they are suffering severely from the effects above,
in which case surgery is strongly advised.
©HealthChat 2004
|
|
 |
|
