Know More About Fibroids

Hello,

Everyone, I’m Dr Sanket Pisat. I’m a consultant gynaecological laparoscopic surgeon, practising in Andheri in Mumbai and today we are going to talk about fibroids. Fibroids are among the communist non-cancerous tumours that grow in the reproductive tract of the female genital system. It is surprising to know that as many as 40% of women will have had an issue with fibroids in their entire lifetime. Some of these fibroids might actually be symptomatic in the sense that they may trouble the patient in terms of giving symptoms like excessive bleeding or inability to get pregnant or a sense of continues heaviness in the lower abdomen or symptoms like urinary symptoms or bowel symptoms where the patient cannot evacuate her bowels completely. Now a lot of these fibroids may actually be asymptomatic in the sense that they have no bearing on the women’s health at all, however most of these fibroids if they are symptomatic almost always require to be treated. Fibroids can be detected by a good ultrasound examination and it is worthwhile to remember that not all fibroids require treatment or require surgery.

A lot of this fibrosis can be left alone without any sequel and some of these fibroids can be managed very well with medicine without the need for surgery however in a select group of patients there are fibroids in the uterus which are causing problems like infertility the inability to get pregnant or heavy menstrual bleeding these are the fibroids that generally require surgery now previously this kind of surgery was done by opening up the abdomen and removing the fibroids. Not anymore now this surgery is done by what we call keyhole surgery or laparoscopy in which two or three small cuts are made on the abdomen and the entire fibroids can be removed these two or three cuts. It is a day care surgery in the scene the patients get admitted in the morning and is usually discharged in the same day or the next day for the removal of fibroids. Because of the advancement in fibroids removal this surgery has become extremely cost effective, painless and with a minimal hospital stay of maybe one or two days the other variant of fibroids is the fibroids that grow with in the uterine lining which are called submucouse fibroids and these can be managed virtually by a scar less called hysteroscopic fibroid removal in which the entire surgery is done through the vagina without having to take a single cut on the patients abdomen other treatment options for fibroids are also available called uterine artery embolization which is actually a small surgery to block the blood supply to the fibroids so that over time the fibroids shrinks and don’t grow anymore. The other option available for the treatment of fibroids is the use of a high-intensity beam much similar to the ultrasound we use for locating and seeing the fibroids but in much intensity in order to melt the fibroid so fibroid never comes back and gives you a pain-free life. Of course the whole decision of which treatment modality can be used in which patient and is suited best for whom has to be left to the doctor because there are several points to consider if you are planning of pregnancy as to how and where the fibroid should be removed and which fibroid should be left alone so that the pregnancy outcome or your future health is not affected. If you have any further questions in this regard please feel free to contact me through Lybrate. Thank you.