About Uterine Fibroids

Estimates are that 20 percent to 40 percent of American women of childbearing years will develop benign uterine fibroids — a noncancerous
growth of tissue in or near the uterus that can cause pain, bleeding or pressure on normal pelvic structures. The exact causes for fibroid development are unclear, but researchers have linked them to both a genetic predisposition and a subsequent development of susceptibility to hormone stimulation.

Women may have a genetic predisposition to fibroid development and then subsequently develop factors that allow fibroids to grow under the influence of a number of hormones. About one third of the 600,000 hysterectomies performed annually in the United States are attributed to these fibroids. Symptoms of uterine fibroids include pelvic pain and/or pressure, heavy prolonged menstrual periods and pressure on the bladder and/or bowels.

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