A lot of women worry about if their fibroids will affect their pregnancy. The clearest answer is - maybe. First off, fibroids can cause some women to have trouble getting pregnant in the first place. As much as 2% of all infertility can be traced back to fibroids. The fibroids that are usually to blame are the ones that sit inside the cavity of the uterus (check out the picture from the first post.) Contrary to what you might think, bigger fibroids are not always worse.
Once a woman is pregnant there are a couple of ways her fibroids can affect her. Since fibroids have been found to respond to hormones like estrogen it's often thought that they will get bigger during pregnancy. However, this actually hasn't been shown! Most fibroids don't change at all during pregnancy and some even get smaller. Despite this, there can be complications during pregnancy. The most common is pain. There have also been some studies to show that fibroids can increase the risk of a miscarriage. Again this is only really a concern if the fibroid is what doctors call submucosal or right underneath the inner lining of the uterus. Women with fibroids may also experience some bleeding before they deliver and can be at risk for preterm labor and birth. They also tend to have more caesarean sections. So what can be done? Are women with fibroids doomed to have a difficult pregnancy? Of course not! Check back next time when we discuss treatment options!
References:
Ouyang D and E Norwitz. "Pregnancy in women with uterine leiomyomas" In UpToDate, Lockwood, C(Ed), UpToDate, Waltham, MA, 2011.
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