What Are Fibroids? - Dr. McLucas (VIDEO)

Dr. McLucas:
My name is Bruce McLucas. I am Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California.

Fibroids are muscular growths within the womb. That’s the uterus, it’s the organ that becomes pregnant or the organ that menstruates every month. Whereas fibroids are not known, they affect 40% of women. So four out of ten women have fibroids. That means that there’s somebody in your family who has fibroids; there’s an aunt, there’s a mother.

This disease, even though it’s benign, can cause life-threatening situations. The patients can bleed to death from fibroids. They can have huge pressure on their bladder, on their pelvis. So even though they’re benign, they are a problem. Fibroids are estrogen-dependent, we know that. They grow very rapidly when a woman is pregnant.

Ironically, as a woman gets closer to the menopause, there is what we would call an estrogen bath. There’s more unopposed estrogen in the menstrual cycle and because of that, the commonest age for fibroids in a woman is in their 40s.

For more information on Uterine Fibroid Embolization or Dr. McLucas visit www.fibroids.com or call 866-362-6463.

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• Uterine Fibroids