What are fibroids? Uterine fibroids (also known as fibromyomas, leimyomas or myomas) are growths made of smooth muscle cells that appear in the uterus during childbearing years. The growths are not malignant nor are they related to cancer, but they are classified as tumors.
Uterine fibroids are solid muscle tissue growths in the uterus. They are also called fibroid tumors, myomas, or leiomyomas. Fibroids occur so frequently (in up to half of all women over forty) that they could be considered a normal irregularity. The occasional fibroid can become enormous (medical literature reports one that was 100 pounds!), but the majority (80%) remain as small as a walnut.
Uterine fibroids are solid muscle tissue growths in the uterus. They are also called fibroid tumors, myomas, or leiomyomas. Fibroids occur so frequently (in up to half of all women over forty) that they could be considered a normal irregularity. The occasional fibroid can become enormous (medical literature reports one that was 100 pounds!), but the majority (80%) remain as small as a walnut.
The causes of uterine fibroids are unknown, but estrogens, especially estradiol, promote their growth. After menopause fibroids disappear. But because estrogen levels can rise during the early menopausal years, previously asymptomatic fibroids may grow in the years just before the cessation of menses, resulting in symptoms such as feeling of heaviness in the belly, low back pain, pain with vaginal penetration, urinary frequency or incontinence, bowel difficulties, or severe menstrual pain and flooding.
Fibroid tumors are not cancer, not malignant. Tumor means a swelling or a growth, not a malignancy, not cancer. Less than 0.1% of all uterine fibroids are malignant.
Small fibroids often disappear spontaneously. Larger fibroids are more difficult to resolve, but not impossible to control with natural measures.
Uterine fibroids are very common, due to the fact that many women have fibroids at some point in their lives. As their growth is dependent on estrogen and progesterone, they occur during the middle and late stages of the woman's reproductive years. They do not grow until puberty ensues and usually appeas at 30 to 50 years of age. After menopause when the estrogen levels drop, they just shrink or disappear.
The composition of all fibroids is the same. They are all made up of uterine muscle cells growing into a tight mass. They can be classified based on the location of their growth. Myometrial or intramural fibroids are found in the uterine muscular wall, and are the most common type of fibroids. Submucosal fibroids develop beneath the interior surface of the uterine wall but may project in the uterus. Subserosal fibroids can grow very large on the outer wall of the uterus into the pelvis. Pedunculated fibroids grow and attach to the outer wall of the uterus by a narrow stalk. Cervical fibroids develop in the cervical wall.
