What are uterine fibroids? Can uterine fibroids cause vaginal bleeding?

Uterine fibroids most often occur in the female reproductive organs. Generally speaking, patients with uterine fibroids rarely have clinical symptoms, so it is sometimes difficult to notice and can only be determined through a doctor's diagnosis or instrument examination in a hospital. What are uterine fibroids? Will there be vaginal bleeding?

Uterine fibroids are the most common benign tumors in the female reproductive organs. They are common in women aged 30-50 and rare in women under 20. According to statistics, at least 20% of women of childbearing age suffer from uterine fibroids. Since most uterine fibroids have no more or less clinical symptoms, the incidence reported by clinical reports is much lower than the actual incidence of fibroids.

There are many risk factors for the occurrence or growth of uterine fibroids. Factors that increase the risk of uterine fibroids include: estrogen, young menarche, nulliparity, late childbearing, obesity, African Americans, moxifen, etc. Factors that reduce the risk of uterine fibroids include: exercise, multiparity, menopause, oral contraceptives, etc. Modern medicine believes that uterine fibroids are a hormone-dependent tumor. Uterine fibroids occur during reproductive age, are rare before puberty, and shrink or disappear after menopause. Studies have shown that estrogen and progesterone synergistically promote the growth of fibroids. The main mechanism may be that estrogen in the follicular phase increases estrogen receptors on uterine smooth muscle, and then promotes the mitotic activity of fibroids in the luteal phase, thereby stimulating the growth of fibroids.

Common symptoms of uterine fibroids include uterine bleeding, abdominal mass, vaginal discharge, compression symptoms, etc. Uterine bleeding is the most common symptom of uterine fibroids. Clinical manifestations include menorrhagia, bleeding cycles, increased menstrual volume, often accompanied by prolonged menstruation, frequent menstruation, shortened menstrual cycle, increased menstrual volume, irregular bleeding, loss of normal menstrual cycle, long duration, time and dripping, which are more common in submucosal fibroids. Uterine bleeding is common in submucosal fibroids and intermuscular fibroids, and subserosal fibroids rarely cause uterine bleeding.