17 Sep 2019

All women who have family members with fibroids are at risk of getting them too, says Dr Rebecca Luckett. 

Dr Luckett, who is an obstetric and gynecologist at Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, said all women were at risk of fibroids, particularly if any of the female relatives has  fibroids.

She urged all women with such relatives to go for an ultrasound scan, adding that nothing could be done to prevent fibroids from growing.

She, however, said there were medicines that could be used to reduce bleeding during periods due to fibroids. She added that some medicines could help to shrink the size of fibroids. She, however, stressed that there was no medicine that could make fibroids go away completely except surgery or to remove the womb (hysterectomy).

Dr Luckett explained that even if fibroids were surgically removed, there was often recurrence.

She said new fibroids could grow after surgery, and that women could consider another surgery to remove them or a surgery to remove the womb, depending on whether they wanted to have more children or not.

Dr Luckett explained that fibroids were tough balls of muscle that form in the uterus, stressing that they were not a form of cancer.

She noted that fibroids often caused no symptoms, adding that when they did, it could be heavy periods, pain, pressure or a feeling of ‘fullness’ in the belly, the need to urinate often or difficulty getting pregnant. ENDS