Uterine fibroids: Understand correctly to protect women's health

Uterine fibroids - a silent but common disease

Uterine fibroids are one of the common gynecological diseases in women of reproductive age, directly affecting reproductive health and quality of life. The disease progresses silently and is difficult to detect in the early stages.

If not diagnosed and treated promptly, fibroids can cause menstrual disorders, menorrhagia, anemia, difficulty conceiving, and even lead to more serious complications.

According to Master, Doctor Nguyen Van Xuyen - Head of Gynecology & Breast Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hong Ngoc - Phuc Truong Minh General Hospital, uterine fibroids is a term quite familiar to many women, because this is a common disease.

Uterine fibroids are a group of benign diseases, formed from smooth muscle cells of the uterus, mainly appearing in reproductive age and often related to changes in female hormones such as estrogen and progesterone.

Although benign, uterine fibroids can still cause many health effects such as abdominal pain, menstrual disorders, menorrhagia, anemia, and even affect fertility, increasing the risk of infertility in women.

The symptoms are very faint.

Sharing at the discussion, the doctor said that common symptoms of uterine fibroids are dull pain in the lower abdomen, sometimes the pain increases during menstruation.

Patients may also experience heavy menstrual bleeding, menorrhagia or metrorrhagia. These are quite typical symptoms of the disease.

In women who have not given birth, uterine fibroids can also be one of the causes of infertility.

However, in reality, there are many cases where the disease has no symptoms or the symptoms are very faint and difficult to detect. Therefore, regular health check-ups are considered very important to detect the disease early and have a plan for timely monitoring and treatment.

In addition, in actual examination, uterine fibroids can sometimes be confused with some other uterine diseases, typically endometriosis in the uterine muscle.

Uterine fibroids are formed from smooth muscle cells and usually have clear boundaries, so they can be surgically removed. In contrast, endometriosis originates from endometrial glands located in the uterine muscle, has no specific boundaries, so it cannot be removed and requires a completely different treatment approach.

According to studies worldwide , uterine fibroids can affect about 20 to 40% of women of reproductive age. The most common age is from 35 to 50.

In Vietnam there are no official statistics, however the situation is generally similar to international studies, mainly affecting women of reproductive age.

Understand correctly to protect women's health

Answering the question of many readers: "Do we need surgery in all cases?", Dr. Xuyen shared that with the advancement of science and technology, there have appeared many minimally invasive treatment options for uterine fibroids.

Surgery is still the main option to completely remove the tumor. However, in cases where the patient is not suitable or does not want surgery but only wants to relieve symptoms, other methods can still be applied such as uterine fibroid embolization, focused ultrasound treatment or radiofrequency ablation.

These methods all aim to destroy tumor cells but are only suitable for certain groups of patients and not applicable to all.

In reality, doctors often encounter women who are afraid of surgery and delay treatment, leading to the tumor growing too large, in some cases the abdomen is as big as pregnancy and seriously affects health.

Therefore, doctors advise that when surgery is indicated, the patient should do it early.

"Currently, surgical techniques have been significantly improved. If in the past, it was mainly open surgery, now most cases of uterine fibroids are treated by laparoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive form that helps patients recover quickly.

Regarding uterine fibroid surgery, there are currently two main techniques: open surgery and laparoscopic surgery. In terms of treatment options, doctors can choose to remove the uterine fibroids or remove the entire uterus depending on the patient's condition as well as the characteristics of the tumor.

With the advancement of medicine, most surgeries at Hong Ngoc Hospital, whether it is fibroid removal or hysterectomy, are performed by laparoscopic method," Dr. Xuyen emphasized.

This technique has many advantages such as small incisions, high aesthetics, minimal invasion, helping patients recover quickly and significantly reduce pain. After surgery, most women feel satisfied with the results achieved.

In cases where the patient has a large fibroid that causes serious complications but is not treated, their health will be directly affected.

Patients may experience heavy menstrual bleeding and severe anemia. In fact, some women, when examined, have a hemoglobin level of only half or two-thirds of that of a normal person.

The worrying thing is that many people do not realize that their body is in a weak state and are still subjective, not following the doctor's treatment instructions. Therefore, doctors recommend that those who have been prescribed must strictly follow the treatment regimen to protect their health.

At the discussion, the doctor also emphasized the importance of maintaining regular screening: "Most women, especially office workers working in modern environments, should maintain the habit of annual general health check-ups.

Some diseases may only need screening every 2-3 years, but a regular check-up once a year is still the best choice to protect your health," the doctor said.

The discussion attracted many interested questions from readers. Readers can follow the entire discussion content here.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/u-xo-tu-cung-hieu-dung-de-bao-ve-suc-khoe-phu-nu-20251006160239662.htm