AUDIO: Dr. William Parker - What Are Uterine Fibroids And Are They Cancerous?
Hi, and thank you for joining us at EmpowHer, the home of women’s health online. Did you know a uterine fibroid is the most common benign (meaning non-cancerous) tumor found in a woman’s uterus? Looking deeper into the issue of fibroids, EmpowHer is joined right now by Dr. William H. Parker, board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, a clinical professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, and he is in private practice in Santa Monica, California.
Dr. Parker is also the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Johns Hospital and Health Center, and the former Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center. His website is fibroidsecondopinion.com. Dr. Parker, let’s get everybody up to speed by starting at the very beginning. What are fibroids and what causes them?
Dr. William Parker:
Well, fibroids are very common, benign, and I think that’s the key word, they are not cancer and they don’t turn into cancer. They are benign overgrowth of the muscle wall of the uterus. They are extremely common. About 80% of women will have them by the time they are 50 years old. Often the patient doesn’t even know because they are very tiny, but it’s very, very common growth in the muscle wall of the uterus.
Todd:
Dr. Parker, you say they are very, very tiny, but what do you consider to be a concerning size for a fibroid?
Dr. William Parker:
Well, when I say tiny, you know, when a uterus is removed in hysterectomy, let’s say for some other reason, some women will have fibroids that are half an inch that they don’t know about, but they can get as large as 7-8, I have seen fibroids as large as 8 or even 9 inches in diameter, so that’s about 18 cm. I think size is not the issue. I think the issue is when you have symptoms.
I have patients, a large part of my practice is taking care of women with fibroids, and I have patients who have very large fibroids, somewhere in the range of 5, 6 inches in diameter that feel absolutely fine and need to do nothing about it, and I have other patients with smaller fibroids that are in places that cause them symptoms, and the symptoms kind of, not require, but the symptoms kind of put them in a position of wanting to have some type of treatment because they are so uncomfortable or bothered by bleeding, etc. So I don’t think you can come up with a specific size. I think it’s just how you feel.
