Fibroids are hard to predict. Given the cloud of unpredictability surrounding fibroids, women approaching the 50 years landmark are distraught over menopause and what comes with it. Can menopause trigger or worsen fibroids?
There are questions about menopause affecting the development of uterine fibroids – or even worsening the tumors if they were already there.
To better analyze the effect of menopause on fibroids, let us start by examining the hormonal changes that occur during and after menopause.
Menopause and how the hormones shift
When a woman experiences or approaches menopause, there is a significant decline in hormones like estrogen and progesterone.
These hormonal reductions diminish the pace at which the uterus walls thicken.
These noncancerous tumors – otherwise known as fibroids – growing on the uterus depend largely on these hormones to fuel their development.
Thanks to the onset of menopause, these tumors are starved of hormonal sustenance, consequently shrinking and dying.
Therefore, menopause doesn’t facilitate the development of tumors in women.
On the contrary, it suppresses them. However, this doesn’t mean that menopause is the ultimate cure for fibroids.
Post-menopausal women still have fibroid symptoms, but how does menopause affect these symptoms?