Fibroids
What are fibroids?
Fibroids are non-cancerous (benign) growth from the muscle layer of the uterus. They can arise on the outside, in the wall or in the cavity of the uterus.
Fibroids are very common. They affect 2 in every 5 women over the age of 40.
What are the causes of fibroids?
While the exact cause of fibroids is uncertain it is likely that a number of factors contribute to the formation of fibroids, including genetic or familial predisposition, environmental and immunological factors, and in particular, hormonal factors. Generally, the female hormone (oestrogen) causes fibroids to grow.
What are the symptoms?
Pain with periods, pain when passing urine or opening bowels and chronic pelvic and lower back pain
Difficulty falling pregnant (infertility)
Abnormal bleeding: irregular or heavy periods; bleeding between your periods
Pressure symptoms, with urinary frequency and bloating.
Rarely, fibroids may become cancerous. This risk does increase in women after menopause, but is rare and only occurs in less than 1:1000 cases
More information about Fibroids
Are fibroids cancer?
Fibroids are not cancerous.
However, they can sometimes be confused with other conditions that may require further evaluation.
In rare cases, a type of cancer known as leiomyosarcoma may arise in the uterus, which is totally different from the common benign fibroids.
However, leiomyosarcomas is very rare, accounting for less than 1% of uterine tumours.
How is fibroid diagnosed?
A doctor may suspect fibroids if your uterus is enlarged or has an irregular shape.
The most common way to diagnose fibroid is by a pelvic ultrasound scan.
The fibroids can be further delineated with an MRI scan, or surgically with both a hysteroscopy and diagnostic laparoscopy.
What are the treatment options?
If the fibroid does not cause any problems then it can be treated by observation. As a short-term treatment, we can induce artificial menopause to shrink the fibroids.
If surgery is required, there are three main surgical options.
Surgical Myomectomy can be performed to remove the fibroids if there are only a small number of them in a favourable location in the uterus. This can be done via laparoscopically, via robotic surgery or with an open incision.
Hysterectomy to remove the uterus and fibroids altogether.
Uterine artery embolisation can be used to reduce the size of the fibroids. This is performed by the interventional radiology team.