A uterine fibroid is a leiomyoma (benign (non-cancerous) tumor from smooth muscle tissue) that originates from the smooth muscle layer (myometrium) of the uterus. Fibroids are often multiple and if the uterus contains too many leiomyomata to count, it is referred to as diffuse uterine leiomyomatosis. The malignant version of a fibroid is extremely uncommon and termed a leiomyosarcoma.
Other common names are uterine leiomyoma, myoma, fibromyoma, fibroleiomyoma.
Fibroids are the most common benign tumors in females and typically found during the middle and later reproductive years. While most fibroids are asymptomatic, they can grow and cause heavy and painful menstruation, painful sexual intercourse, and urinary frequency and urgency. Some fibroids may interfere with pregnancy although this appears to be very rare.
In the United States, symptoms caused by uterine fibroids are a very frequent indication for hysterectomy.
Read more about Uterine Fibroid: Signs and Symptoms, Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Treatment, Epidemiology, Prognosis, Society and Culture, In Other Animals
Famous quotes containing the word uterine:
“It is not menstrual blood per se which disturbs the imagination—unstanchable as that red flood may be—but rather the albumen in the blood, the uterine shreds, placental jellyfish of the female sea. This is the chthonian matrix from which we rose. We have an evolutionary revulsion from slime, our site of biologic origins. Every month, it is woman’s fate to face the abyss of time and being, the abyss which is herself.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)