Throughout a large part of my career I was a medical underwriter at various levels in the life and health insurance industry. My job was to assess the future risk peoples’ medical condition presented to the company. When the applicant was a woman, you could often count on the fact that there would be “fibroids” somewhere in her medical history.
One in every five woman is affected by fibroids.
What are fibroids?
Fibroids are growths in the uterus (womb) made of muscle and other tissue. They rarely turn into cancer and are very common in women of childbearing age.
The main concern with fibroids is that they may cause hysterectomies.
While there are often no symptoms when they do occur they may include heavy bleeding, bleeding between periods, pain during sex and lower back pain among other symptoms.
Fibroids are not limited to one area of the uterus. They can grow inside the wall of the uterus, in the lower pelvic belly area and from the wall of the uterus to the lining of the uterus.
Treatment for the uterus with fibroids does not necessarily have to be removal.
What if I want to have a child?
Actually fibroids are sometimes found in women who have no symptoms but are being examined because they cannot have children. While fibroids can hinder pregnancy they don’t all the time and physicians do have other ways to treat them.
Treatment for fibroids are based on the symptoms the woman is experiencing including whether or not the woman wants to have a child, the size of the fibroids and the age of the woman.
There are various treatment choices for fibroids including pain medicines and shrinking the fibroid by decreasing the blood flow to the fibroid called uterine artery embolization.
Typically a hysterectomy will be performed if the woman in question doesn’t want future children and/or the bleeding from the fibroids presents a major health risk.
Fibroids fall in the category of conditions that doctors will sometimes dismiss because they aren’t usually dangerous. That places a burden on the patient because medical conditions that start off light sometimes can cause major problems.
Fibroids may go away after menopause.
Fibroids will not be picked up on a pap test so at some point just to create a baseline you may want to ask your doctor to have a sonogram done.
Read and learn about medical conditions and take an interest in your own health before you have a major health problem; it is the best guarantee you have for avoiding bad health.
References:
“Fibroids,” Fact Sheet, 2007, FDA
National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, 1-800-370-2943
http://www.fda.gov/womens
Reference:
“Fibroids,” Fact Sheet, 2007, FDA
National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, 1-800-370-2943
