By age 50, nearly two-thirds of women experience uterine fibroids, noncancerous tumors that grow in the uterus and range from pea to football sized and even larger. While some women with fibroids don’t have symptoms, others have significant pain, anemia, bleeding, increased urinary frequency, fertility problems and pregnancy complications.
And they disproportionately impact women of color. Black women are diagnosed with fibroids roughly three times as frequently as white women, develop them earlier in life and tend to experience larger and more numerous fibroids that cause more severe symptoms.
Nearly a quarter of Black women between 18 and 30 have fibroids compared to about 6% of white women, according to some national estimates. By age 35, that number increases to 60%. Black women are also two to three times more likely to have recurring fibroids or suffer from complications.
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BDO: Can fibroids grow back after they’ve been removed?
Dr. Linda Bradley: So, fibroid recurrence is common. Up to 25% of women have recurrent fibroids. Of course the ones we take out or remove, don’t come back. But they can come back in the same region.
But when they come back, the recurrence doesn’t mean that they’re symptomatic. I’ve had patients who I’ve done surgery on, they couldn’t get pregnant or stay pregnant, but we take out fibroids…they have their one or two kids, 15-20 years later patients symptoms meaning new fibroids.
Not the ones we took out because those were all taken away, but they can come back.
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We look at, did the patient reach her reproductive capabilities, capacity for what she wanted? If they do come back, there’s so many treatments now for so many symptoms, I may be able to help her avoid surgery.
We don’t know what causes them, and certainly, once they’re removed, the idea that other parts of the muscle can replicate, making these tumors or tissues grow. So, certainly, we would tell a patient that it’s not 100%, except for those patients that are close to menopause. Women 45-50, if we take out fibroids, they’re likely to never need any additional treatment.
Why? Because their body turns off. Hormones go away and there’s nothing to nurture or fertilize the fibroids to grow. We have to look at the age of the patient and number of previous fibroids that may have been removed that may put her at an increased risk for more of them to develop.
