Fibroids and Pregnancy

When a couple is love, they would want to have a child. What they do is they make love by means of sexual intercourse to have the woman pregnant. In a few weeks, the pains and frustration during pregnancy would be given meaning by the little child being brought to the world.

The most frustrating part about pregnancy would have to be inability to conceive a child. Conceiving a child is easy if the woman is fertile and not sterile. But with a lot of cellular changes that occur from radiation sources, food intake and genetic predisposition, infertility may be brought about by some physiological alterations in the body. One example of such alteration would be the presence of fibroids in the uterus. These fibroids are benign tumors and are the most common tumors of the female genital tract. They occur in more than 20% to 30% of all women during the menstrual years. The incidence is two or three time greater in African-American women than in white women. Leiomyomas are common in women approaching menopause. Leiomyomas are known by various names related to the tissue involved such as fibroids, fibromas, fibromyomas , fibroleiomyelomas, myomas, and fiber balls.

Leiomyomas are composed mainly of muscle and fibrous connective tissue. The cause of such tumors is unknown. Their growth seems to be related to estrogen stimulation because the fibroids often enlarge with pregnancy and shrink with menopause. A Leiomyoma begins as simple as proliferation of smooth muscle cells. It has been suggested that this type of proliferation is stimulated by physical or mechanical means and may occur at points of maximal stress within the myometrium. Because there are many point of stress within the uterus resulting from contractions, fibroids are often multiple. Frequently, fibroids are asymptomatic. Manifestations usually are defined by the tumor size, location and number. Additionally abnormal bleeding, often resulting in hypermenorrhea, is frequently related to the hormone dependence of the fibroid.

The onset of manifestation commonly occur in a client’s late 40s and early 50s just before menopause. Once menopause begins, manifestations often cease. It is rare for manifestations to occur after menopause when fibroids begin to regress with decreasing estrogen stimulation. If new manifestations begin to develop during these years, other diagnoses such as cancer need to be ruled out. The most common of all the manifestation is uterine bleeding, which may be excessive in either duration. Additionally with all that blood loss, it may be accompanied by anemia, with manifestations of tiredness, and lethargy.

Dysmenorrhea and a sense of pelvic pressure are often present. Urinary frequency is also common when the tumor presses the bladder and urinary retention as well because the bladder function is compromised by the tumor size. Some other manifestations would include distention of the kidneys, abdominal pain, pain upon urination and many more depending on the severity of the tumor size. Although these tumors may be benign, these tumors need to be removed surgically because the manifestations may complicate the whole condition which would eventually lead to the death of a woman.