5 Things You May Not Know About Uterine Fibroids

If you don’t know much about uterine fibroids, don’t worry — many women don’t. 

Start with this: Uterine fibroids are growths that may occur in the muscular tissue of your uterus. They are fairly common, affecting as many as 80% of women under the age of 50, according to the Department of Health & Human Services Office on Women’s Health.

Those are the basics. But there’s more to know, and because uterine fibroids are so common, it’s important for every woman to have some knowledge about them.

Relax. You don’t have to spend hours studying a medical textbook. To make it easy for you, Houmam Al-Hakeem, MD, and our team at Westover Hills Women’s Health in San Antonio, Texas, have compiled these five key facts about this common women’s health condition.

Fibroids are hardly ever cancerous

Although they may sometimes be referred to as tumors, uterine fibroids are almost always noncancerous, or benign. Also known as “leiomyomas” or just “myomas,” fibroids are masses of cells. But only in rare cases (less than 1 in 1,000) do these masses of cells become cancerous.

Fibroids may cause a variety of symptoms, or none at all

If you do experience fibroid symptoms, you may have one or more of the following: 

• A frequent need to urinate
• Abdominal or pelvic pain
• Bleeding between menstrual periods
• Constipation
• Enlargement of your belly area
• Heavy periods or periods that last eight days or longer
• Lower back pain
• Pain during sex
• Pelvic or rectal pressure
• Pregnancy complications, such as the need for a cesarean section
• Trouble getting pregnant or staying pregnant

If Dr. Al-Hakeem suspects that you have uterine fibroids, he recommends further testing, such as an ultrasound, X-ray, or hysteroscopy, which is a test using a slim device that allows Dr. Al-Hakeem to look inside your uterus.

Fibroids can range in size

They may be as tiny as an apple seed or as large as a grapefruit, or occasionally even larger than that.

Some women are more likely to get fibroids than others

Any woman can develop uterine fibroids, but they occur with greater frequency in women ages 30-40. They are also somewhat more prevalent in African American women than in white women.

Treatment may be simpler than you think

If your fibroids are causing no symptoms, you may not require treatment. For minor discomfort, over-the-counter pain relievers may provide relief. If you’re not trying to get pregnant, hormonal birth control methods (pills, injections, IUDs) may control symptoms.

When fibroids require treatment, Dr. Al-Hakeem can perform minimally invasive procedures, including robot-assisted surgery, to remove fibroids while preserving your uterus. He also performs treatment with the Acessa procedure, which uses heat to eliminate fibroids without harming your uterine tissue.

If you have unanswered questions about uterine fibroids, or if you suspect that you may have them, our team at Westover Hills Women’s Health can help. To schedule a consultation at one of our two San Antonio offices, call us today or make an appointment using our online tool.