Women’s who are planning to get pregnant are always in concern with health issues and have serious set of doubts. One such concern generally women rise is the impact of uterine fibroids on pregnancy.
Uterine fibroids are small lumps or tumours that are formed from the tissues and the muscles of the uterine wall. These fibroids are of varying sizes and can grow inside the cavity of the uterus, on the outside wall of the uterus or within the uterine wall. Some women may have single fibroids while some may have clusters of it. Generally, these fibroids are non-cancerous.
Uterine fibroids prevalence rate is more in women above 50 years i.e., 80% of these women have it and is nearly 50% in women by the age of 35-40. But the biggest worry is can a women get pregnant or have normal pregnancies despite having uterine fibroids? This article looks into these questions in detail.
Is it possible to get pregnant despite having uterine fibroids?
Uterine fibroids can be of varying sizes from 1mm to 8 inches. There are numerous non-surgical and surgical uterine fibroids treatments available. But preventing the formation of fibroids is not possible. Hence the best way of treatment is to get in regular pelvic check-up, maintain healthy lifestyle and maintain healthy body weight.
Uterine fibroids are considered to cause hindrance in fertility. It can reduce the reproductive potential by obstructing the fallopian tubes, causing impaired gamete transportation, can reduce the embryo ability to implant and can even prevent the foetus from developing if the fibroids are of bigger size.
But numerous medical studies have revealed that many women conceived despite having fibroids. In case you already are aware that you have fibroids consult it with your health expert before getting conceived as the health expert would give you the right plan for monitoring fibroids that does not affects your pregnancy. Fibroids in some cases have been reported as the cause of fertility but with proper treatment of managing uterine fibroids many women were able to conceive.
Thus, having fibroids is not the end of hope of getting pregnant. The right uterine fibroids treatment and proper guidance can help you to conceive.
Risks associated with uterine fibroid during pregnancy
Many clinical studies have revealed that despite fibroids many women were able to have normal pregnancies but uterine fibroid presence can pose serious challenges during pregnancies. Some of these are as follows:
Risk due to uterine fibroids in early trimester
Hormones levels get increased during pregnancies especially the hormone estrogen. These hormones are essential for the bay to grow. Fibroids require estrogen to grow. Thus, the size of fibroids gets bigger. The growth of fibroids can be in the first trimester of the pregnancy as it is the period when the estrogen levels are elevated. Due to this some of the problems that can occur are:
- Having pain and bleeding during first trimester: Some women can have bleeding or just pain while some can have both due to the presence of fibroid in first trimester of the pregnancy.
- Miscarriage: The chances of having miscarriage during first trimester due to fibroids is more than compared to women without fibroids. If the women have multiple fibroids the chances of miscarriage increase further.
Risk due to uterine fibroids in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy
In this time period of pregnancy, the uterus generally increases in size to help the bay to grow. This can cause the fibroids to experience pressure and it can lead to following issues:
- Having discomfort and pain: Due to pressure the fibroid may get twisted causing discomfort and pain.
- Due to the obstruction of blood supply to fibroid the fibroid may die and this can cause severe pain and can even lead to miscarriages.
- Fibroids of larger size increases the risk of placental abruption and can result in fetal damage and bleeding.
- Due to fibroids, there is heavy chance of early 37-week delivery.
Risk due to uterine fibroids at the time of delivery
Presence of fibroids can cause numerous problems during delivery which are listed below:
- Big size fibroids can prevent the baby to flip to the correct position and thus can risk and cause breech birth wherein the baby feet or butt first comes out rather than normal head coming out.
- The chances of having C-Section delivery are more in case of uterine fibroids as fibroids can cause blocking of the birth canal or can cause the uterine not to contract to assist in normal delivery.
What happens to uterine fibroid after delivery?
Medical studies have found that fibroids shrink to more than fifty percent after the successful delivery after a period of 3 to 6 months.
Conclusion
Uterine fibroids are common medical condition in females. Uterine fibroids are generally non-cancerous in nature and their presence can cause discomfort, pain, irregular periods and in some cases, it is the cause difficulty in getting pregnant. But with proper uterine fibroid treatment many women were able to conceive and have baby. The risks of problems in pregnancy like bleeding, pain, miscarriage, c-section delivery, breech delivery with the presence of uterine fibroid increases and thus it is essential to address the issue of fibroids earlier to pregnancy. It can be done through regular pelvic check-up, by maintaining healthy lifestyle and by availing timely treatment.