Uterine fibroids are benign tumors of the uterus. “Benign” means that they are not cancer. They are swellings that happen in the muscle area of the uterus. And these swellings can be anywhere in that muscle. And the size can vary also. And that will decide the symptoms and the complaints you might have.
So “myo” is “muscle”, “oma” is “swelling”, that’s why a myoma is a muscle swelling and fibroid is; the fibres of the muscle will have some swelling in them.

Who gets them? About 80-90% of the women by the age of 50 will have had myomas. Some women will never notice them and other might have life-threatening situations because of them.
The causes are not known of why we have or develop these myomas, but we are assuming that oestrogen has a major role in affecting them, so their growth. So the more oestrogen you have (the female hormone), the more chances of growing a bigger size of those myomas.
Genetics play an important role. Number 1 role is that you might inherit it from your mother or a related woman in the family on your mother’s side. So if your mother, your aunt or your sister have had it, you probably will develop it. Another reason is weight gain. If you are overweight you might develop it, because this will increase the oestrogen in the blood.
Women who have had their menarche very early (started menstruating very early in their lives), we expect that they might be having a higher chance of developing myomas.

The symptoms and the complaints due to myomas will depend on the size and the location of the tumors. So let’s see, on this painting of Dr. Netter, how this will happen. So you might have a tumor or a myoma in the middle of the uterus, in the middle layer and you might not notice much.
Another one might block the fallopian tube and then will affect the fertility.
Another one might fill in the area of the uterus and then affect also the growth of your baby if you are pregnant – or the position of the baby. It might even block the exit of the baby and then we’ll have to do a caesarean section to get the baby out.
One might also even stick out of the vagina and we can see it outside the uterus.
Here’s another one that is actually coming outside of the uterus and then twisting around itself and might be life-threatening to the patient.
The size, as you can see, varies from some millimetres and some can grow to as big as a watermelon or football.
As you can see here, also the baby’s growth is affected by this tumor, also the position.
This tumor has been developing gangrene, and then we have a major life-threatening situation for the lady.
This lady’s tumor is totally blocking her uterus and then she might be not able to get pregnant.
And this lady’s myoma is sticking out of her abdominal wall, and then it looks very disturbing of course, and also could threaten her life.
Here we can see that the myomas can also grow to affect the colon, if they press on the colon, and the rectum might even block it and in the end you will develop constipation and severe pain, abdominal pain.
You can also have back pain due to the weight of the uterus pulling on the ligaments hanging on the backbones, and then you’ll have a lot of pain.
Another problem that, if it’s very heavy, it might press on the urinary bladder and then you will be having the urge to urinate more often.
Yet another problem is that if they’re very big and filling this area sexual intercourse will be very painful.
And another problem they cause is that they’re cosmetically not pretty if they grow very big. You will develop a big belly any people might think you’re pregnant, but you’re not. It’s that myoma.
They also suck a lot of blood out of your system. So when you are

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