Diseases & Conditions Blog

Fibroid tumors of the uterus are tumors of muscle and connective tissues. They constitute the most common type of pelvic tumor, occurring in about 20 per cent of women of 35 years of age or older. They are characteristic of sexual maturity. The vast majority of them occur in middle life, commonly in the third, fourth and fifth decades.

Fibroids may be as small as a garden pea or as large as a full term pregnancy, although huge sizes are rarely seen today because the growths are usually recognized and removed before attaining tremendous dimensions. Frequently the tumors are multiple and knobby, and cause the womb to be not unlike a lumpy potato, with nodules buried in its wall.

Symptoms

Often a fibroid tumor is discovered in a routine physical examination of a woman who has experienced no symptoms. The growths are painless, in absence of complications, and may be present for many years without causing distress. If enlargement is sufficient to exert pressures on nearby structures, various symptoms depending on size and location may occur difficult urination, constipation, vague feelings of “heaviness,” disturbances of menstruation.

If the fibroids are small and cause no pressure symptoms or menstrual abnormalities, they need not be treated actively, but there should be an examination every six months or so to keep watch on the situation. Otherwise, the usual treatment is surgical removal. Many factors affect the decision in the case of an individual patient, as evaluated by the doctor. In a procedure called myomectomy, the tumors are removed from their beds and the cavities closed. This operation may be preferred in young women who desire to become pregnant.

In women who are near or past the menopause, the entire uterus may be removed (hysterectomy) instead of excising individual tumors. Tumors of moderate size that cause no symptoms in women near the menopause may just be left alone and watched, since there is some tendency for fibroids to regress after the change of life. When surgery is considered too hazardous for a particular patient, treatment by radiation (x-ray) tends to shrink the tumors.

Ovarian Cysts

The ovary may be the site of various types of tumors, many of which are benign. Some are malignant. A cyst is a sac containing fluid or mucoid material. Several varieties may arise in the ovary. Small cysts sometimes disappear without treatment, but if they enlarge or become twisted they must be removed. A cyst that has a slender stem (pedicle) may twist tightly around the stem, causing intense abdominal pain that may arouse suspicion of appendicitis.

The ovary, as well as being a producer of eggs, produces sex hormones. The ovary secretes estrogen, necessary for feminine development, and progesterone, which is necessary for preparing the uterus for pregnancy. Some tumors of the ovary may cause excessive hormone production. It is not possible to determine the exact nature of an ovarian cyst until it has been removed surgically and examined under a microscope. Generally, cysts exceeding size of an average orange should be removed.

Next to pain, headache is probably the most common symptom to affect man­kind. There is hardly a grown person who at one time or another has not experienced mild or severe headaches, for which most people take aspirin or a similar compound because it is often effective and does not require a doctor’s prescription.

People of especially tense and nervous temperament may experience frequent or daily bouts of severe headache that is usually localized in the front or top part of the head. Those with rheumatism of the vertebrae and muscles of the neck will complain of headache in the back part of the head. This is actually not a true headache and may often be relieved by massage of the neck muscles and aspirin.

Nervous people are continually harassed by real and anticipated problems and fears of dire things to come, so that through over excitability the brain becomes overworked and filled with an excess of blood, which leads to headache. Such high-strung individuals may experience headaches for many years and be none the worse for it, and at times they obtain temporary relief from one or another medication. Some severe attacks may not respond to any medication. Any severe and persistent headach should obtain careful study, since head­aches may also be caused by allergy. sinuses, colds, eyestrain, head injury. meningitis, a brain abscess, or briar. tumor. Severe headache can produce nausea and vomiting and impair the efficiency of work and daily activities.

Migraine is a special variety of intense headache that sets in with suddenness on one side of the head, lasts a day or two .La disappears just as suddenly as it came only to recur every few weeks are months with strange regularity. In women, it seems to come with the men.al periods and disappears entirely sudden they reach the menopause. The sudden migraine attack may be accompanied by vomiting and temporary disturbances of vision. Many remedies are employed for migraine, including steroid compounds and ergot and caffeine preprations which may ameliorate some of the attacks when taken as a doctor directs, but they do not have any curative effect on the underlying condition.