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35 years
I have Fibroid about 23 cm. What can I do?
Apr 26, 2014

Dr. Rania Mousa General Medicine
Are you checking with a gynecologist for your fibroid? Was the change in your fibroid gradual or did you find it by incidence? Most fibroids are asymptomatic (no symptoms) where the doctor will only watch them through interval check ups and interval echo to monitor the size change and pressure symptoms. Fibroids usually shrink after menopause but when there are symptoms, you can be given a medicine to minimize symptoms and watch and wait the fibroid. BUT a doctor must not wait and surgery may be done if the fibroid size is large or the symptoms are worse and uncontrolled and if the fibroid is growing bigger so quickly.
A common way to describe fibroid size is by using comparisons with commonly used items, to help visualise the size.
A fibroid is considered large at approximately grapefruit size, which is bigger than the largest dimension of the uterus (6-9 cm). Your fibroid is considered very large in size, the size of a cantalope.
Fibroids that are larger than a 12-14 week pregnancy (e.g. a large grapefruit). If allowed to become even larger, the associated risk of complications of surgery begins to increase, especially involving injury to the ureter or bladder. Additionally, large fibroids may predispose to greater blood loss at the time of surgery. Very large fibroids even if silent and asymptomatic, also are inclined to undergo a process called "degeneration", an event that occurs if the enlarging fibroid outgrows its blood supply. If they are not receiving sufficient oxygen, the cells of the fibroid die, causing abrupt, severe pain and tenderness. At this point, hysterectomy is the only option for treatment. In the case of very large silent fibroids (cantaloupe size) there is a rare association with blood clots to the lung in addition to the common serious symptoms associated with such size.
CONTACT YOUR OB-GYN DOCTOR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
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