What are the symptoms of uterine fibroids? How to self-examine uterine fibroids?

Uterine fibroids are the most common benign tumors in women. They are composed of smooth muscle and connective tissue, so they are also called uterine leiomyoma. Common symptoms include uterine bleeding, abdominal mass, vaginal discharge, bladder and rectal compression.

The origin of uterine fibroids and the mechanisms that promote their growth remain poorly understood. It is currently believed that the transformation of myometrial cells into fibroids may involve a complex interaction between somatic mutations of normal myometrium, sex hormones, and local growth factors.

Due to people's lack of correct understanding of uterine fibroids, many women panic when they hear that they have fibroids in their uterus; some patients suffer from anemia due to uterine fibroids, or even have serious conditions, but are still unwilling to undergo surgery.

In fact, uterine fibroids are a benign tumor. Patients with uterine fibroids should first consider how to "coexist" with the disease while ensuring the quality of life. Most women diagnosed with uterine fibroids have neither symptoms nor surgery. However, some patients with uterine fibroids will be accompanied by anemia or compression symptoms, making it difficult to ensure a normal life, not to mention "coexistence" with uterine fibroids. In this case, surgical treatment should be considered. Traditional Chinese medicine also has certain advantages in the treatment of uterine fibroids, and patients can make a comprehensive choice.

What are the obvious symptoms of uterine fibroids?

(1) Uterine bleeding:

Uterine bleeding is the most common early symptom of uterine fibroids. The clinical manifestations are menorrhagia, cyclical bleeding, increased menstrual volume, often accompanied by prolonged menstruation, frequent menstruation, shortened menstrual cycle, shortened menstrual volume, increased menstrual volume; irregular bleeding, loss of normal menstrual periodicity, long duration, long duration, short duration, and submucosal fibroids. Uterine bleeding is common in submucosal fibroids and intermuscular fibroids, and subserosal fibroids rarely cause uterine bleeding. According to the literature, the uterine bleeding rates of submucosal fibroids, intermuscular fibroids, and subserosal fibroids are 89.5%~100%, 74%~77.7%, and 33.3%~36%, respectively.

(2) Abdominal mass:

The uterus is located deep in the pelvic cavity, and the abdomen cannot touch the mass at the beginning of the fibroids. When uterine fibroids gradually increase in size, the uterine pregnancy size exceeds 3 months, or the subserosal fibroids located at the bottom of the uterus are easier to touch from the abdomen. The mass is located in the middle of the lower abdomen, practical, and movable, but not very active, no tenderness, and slow growth. If the patient's abdominal wall is thick, the uterus is enlarged, or exceeds the pelvic cavity and even reaches a 4-5 month pregnancy size, it is still difficult for the patient to find it by themselves. Therefore, there are fewer patients with uterine fibroids due to abdominal masses. The huge submucosal fibroids are detached from the vagina, and the patient can remove the mass from the vulva for treatment. The tumor is mainly accompanied by infectious necrosis, and there are few patients with early symptoms of this type of uterine fibroids in recent years.

(3) Vaginal discharge:

Uterine submucosal fibroids or cervical submucosal fibroids can cause increased leucorrhea. Once the tumor is infected, there may be a large amount of purulent leucorrhea. If there is ulceration, necrosis, and bleeding, there may be bloody or purulent vaginal discharge with a foul odor, which is an early symptom of uterine fibroids.

(4) Compression symptoms:

Uterine fibroids can cause compression symptoms of surrounding organs. Uterine anterior wall fibroids close to the bladder can cause bladder irritation symptoms, manifested as frequent urination and urgency; when cervical fibroids grow forward to a considerable size, they can also cause bladder compression, leading to upper pubic discomfort, frequent urination, urinary retention or overflow incontinence; giant cervical anterior lip fibroids fill the vagina and compress the urethra, causing dysuria or even urinary retention, and patients can receive treatment for urinary system symptoms. Uterine posterior wall fibroids, especially canyon or cervical posterior lip fibroids fill the vagina and compress the rectum backwards, causing swelling in the posterior pelvic cavity and poor defecation. Broad ligament fibroids or giant cervical fibroids embedded in the pelvic cavity compress the ureter and block the upper urinary tract, leading to ureteral dilatation and even hydronephrosis. Lower limb edema is caused by obstruction of pelvic lymphatic and venous blood flow. .

Uterine fibroids can also be self-checked

1. Observe bleeding

Mainly refers to menstrual blood. Generally speaking, the amount of menstruation is larger than before. Postmenopausal bleeding and sexual contact bleeding are mainly caused by cervical disease or uterine fibroids. Therefore, in addition to bleeding caused by normal menstruation, the cause should be investigated as soon as possible and other conditions should be checked.

2. Observe leucorrhea

Leucorrhea is composed of vaginal mucosal exudate, cervical glands and endometrial gland secretions, including vaginal epithelial cells, leukocytes and some non-pathogenic bacteria. Normal leucorrhea is white, flocculent and viscous liquid, and its quantity and characteristics vary slightly with the menstrual cycle, such as the color of leucorrhea,

3. Touching the lump

There are changes in both quality and quantity, especially pus-like, bloody, and watery leucorrhea.

The patient can lie flat on the bed on an empty stomach in the morning, bend his knees slightly, relax his abdomen, and touch his lower abdomen with his hands to feel a larger lump.