Uterine Fibroids Treatment in Hyderabad
The most common benign (not cancerous) tumour in the uterus is fibroids. Nearly 20% – 50% of women in their reproductive age experience the incidence of uterine fibroids. About half of them go unnoticed as they are asymptomatic. They occur more frequently in nulliparous women.
What Are Uterine Fibroids?
Women who suffer from fibroids have abnormally growing muscle within their uterus (womb). They are benign tumours and are smooth fibrous connective tissues. Fibroids are generally non-cancerous. They rarely develop into cancer, with a 0.1% incidence.
A woman’s lifetime risk of developing uterine fibroids is as high as 20%, but many women do not experience symptoms or require treatment. Fibroids can be as small as a pea seed or as large as a watermelon. In addition, Fibroids’ size, shape, and location can differ even in the same woman.
Facts About Uterine Fibroids?
- Also referred to as leiomyomas and myomas.
- Typically, they develop between 16 to 50 years of age (reproductive years) because of high estrogen levels in this period. Their growth is prolonged.
- Approximately 30% of women who are at risk of fibroids develop them by the age of 35, and 20% to 80% of them develop by 50 years of age.
- In some cases, fibroids can be severe, but they are generally less complicated.
- Fibroids are hard to treat because experts have yet to find their exact cause.
Types Of Fibroids
Fibroids are divided into various types according to where they occur on or inside the uterus.
- Intramural Fibroids: This type of fibroid grows within the muscular wall of the uterus. Around 75% of women with fibroids have the intramural type.
- Subserosal Fibroids: These fibroids develop beneath the membrane covering the outer part of the uterus, called the serosa. About 15% of women with fibroids have Subserosal Fibroids.
- Submucosal Fibroids: These types of fibroids develop inside the uterine cavity. The incidence of these tumours is relatively low, i.e. 5%.
- Cervical Fibroids: Develop below the uterus, in the cervix. Found in 2.5% of women with fibroids.
- Pedunculated Fibroids: These fibroids grow outside or inside the uterus. Approx. 2.5% of women with fibroids suffer from this condition.
Fertility and Fibroid
It is estimated that 5-10% of infertility-suffering women will have fibroids. Depending on a fibroid’s size and location, it may significantly impact a woman’s fertility.
Causes Of Uterine Fibroids
It is still not known what causes fibroids. However, they commonly develop when the estrogen and progesterone levels rise during reproductive years.
- Hormones: Your ovaries produce estrogens and progesterone hormones that regenerate the uterine lining during mensuration. These hormones may result in fibroid growth.
- Genetics: Genetical changes might also result in fibroid growth.
- Hereditary: This condition can also be inherited through family history.
Uterine fibroids: Causes and Risk Factors
Several factors might influence the development of uterine fibroids. Some of them are:
- Increasing age of women
- Being overweight or obese
- Being pregnant
- Women who take birth control pills
- Consuming more red meat, alcohol, and caffeine
- African-American women
Fibroid risk may be reduced by dietary changes, such as eating more fruits and vegetables. The risk of developing fibroids also decreases when a woman gives birth.
Symptoms Of Uterine Fibroids
A fibroid doesn’t usually cause any symptoms or cause problems, and most women are unaware they have one until they are diagnosed.
After menopause, your body slows down its hormone production, which encourages fibroid growth. As a result, you may not experience symptoms during menopause or if you have a small tumour.
Symptoms are experienced by one out of three women who have fibroids. The symptoms may include:
- Abnormal bleeding from the uterus, sometimes with blood clots
- Painful periods
- Anemia
- Heavy menstrual cramping
- Pain in the pelvis
- Menstruation that lasts for a long time
- Painful sex
- Lower abdominal pressure
- Frequent urination
- Constipation
- Abdominal or uterine enlargement
- Lower back pain
- leg pain
Other possible symptoms are:
- Labor complications
- Problems with pregnancy
- Infertility
- Miscarriages or abortions
Treatment For Uterine Fibroids
If a woman has troublesome symptoms caused by fibroids, she must seek treatment. It is essential to treat the condition as soon as possible if it is associated with other complications.
Various treatment methods can be used to treat fibroids, and the treatment is tailored for every individual based on the severity of symptoms, size, location, and type of fibroids, as well as the desire to become pregnant.
Medications
Over the counter (OTC) medications and NSAIDs are used to manage pain, and hormone-related medicines are also prescribed. The medicines might shrink fibroids or stop their growth.
MRI-guided focused ultrasound surgery (FUS) is a non-invasive procedure to treat fibroids. In this process, sound waves are focused on the fibroids in order to destroy them.
Minimally Invasive Procedures
Fibroids can be eliminated without open surgery using minimally invasive methods:
- RA – Radiofrequency Ablation
- UAE – Uterine artery embolization
- Laparoscopic or Hysteroscopic myomectomy
- EA – Endometrial ablation
Fibroid Treatments Using Traditional Surgical Techniques
Hysterectomy: This is the only permanent solution when large fibroids are present.
Abdominal Myomectomy: It is also called open myomectomy, a major surgery that can remove large and multiple fibroids.
It is vital to treat fibroids if they are causing pregnancy complications or affecting fertility levels.
If you want to know more, you can contact Dr. Mounika Reddy, top Gynecologist and Fertility Doctor in Hyderabad at IRA Fertility Clinic. The doctor has treated thousands of women who have struggled with conception and pregnancy problems over her ten years of experience. So make an appointment with the doctor for better solutions if you’re experiencing any reproductive health problems.
