Fibroids??

GreekyPie

Hi all, I'm popping in from the 1st Tri board. I had my first ultrasound today and in addition to the baby (perfectly healthy), they found 2 fibroids. The doctor thinks they are pedunculated (sp), in other words, growing outside the uterus / attached to the uterus. So they aren't growing near the baby, but they want to keep a close eye on them.

Has anyone had fibroids? What can you tell me about how it affected your pg? Any words of comfort? I'm pretty nervous to have not one but TWO. The dr. said in a regular (not pg) patient, she would remove them, but you can't remove them once pg.

 Thanks...

HeyyRed

I had them. They were discovered at my 28 week ultrasound.

The doctor told me that if I ended up in a C-Section, to remember to tell the doctor on call that I had them and they needed to be removed.

As it turns out, I had an emergency C-section and I remembered to tell the doctor so they removed them after they delivered the baby. I was on the table for an extra 30 mins as a result.

The bonus was, I don't have to go in and have a procedure done now with my doctor to remove them. It's all taken care of.

I was told however, that it would be done as an outpatient procedure but I'm still happy it's all over and done with.?

MrsAO

I have one that was pretty small (size of a grape) that was discovered about a year prior to becoming pg. Doc said it could affect fertility and that we would address it if it did.  Luckily for me it didn't, so when the time came doc said that it would likely grow along with my uterus and we just needed to keep an eye on it to make sure it didn't impeed the growth of baby.

I haven't had any problems w/ pg because of it. At my appt yesterday he said that the last u/s (2 wks ago) indicated that it was the size of an orange but not near my cervix so it shouldn't pose an issue.  I asked if he would remove it in the event I ended up having a c-section and he said no because there's already so much blood that he wouldn't want to cut anything else out while I was in the OR.  He also said it would probably start shrinking again once I deliver, and that we would address any problems it causes later if that's the case.

Everyone is different.  Try not to worry.  In my case, though, it hasn't been an issue.

mrs. remy

I have them, they were discovered at my 10-week US and prior to that I had no clue they were there. They weren't giving me any symptoms or anything. It freaked me out and caused me a lot of unnecessary stress when I found out about them b/c apparently they can cause PTL and increase your chance of having a c-section. Anyway they don't seem to have affected my pregnancy at all. All my appointments have been textbook boring, no complications, no pain from them or anything, and here I am full term and ready to deliver. So don't freak out about them, they might not cause you any problems at all.

My OB did say that after the baby came we could maybe discuss removing them in an outpatient procedure, but suggested we do that only if they were bothering me.

NKufferman

One of my girlfriends had one, but it was inside.  They had hoped it would stay small - the blood supply to them usually gets cut off when the baby grows.  In her case it didn't.  She lost the ability to urinate prior to the end of her 1st trimester.  She had to self catheterize herself for her entire pregnancy every 2 hours.  It grew to the size of a watemelon.  Note;  She has the body of a Barbie doll.

The baby was completely uneffected - Ava is a beautiful 5 year old that excels at everything and can even speak 3 languages.

She had the baby vaginally - they wouldn't remove the fibroid until 6 months after she gave birth as they thought she'd lose to much blood.  The removal wasn't that bad.

 She is now considering having another child - even though they removed the fibroid they can grow back.  They can't gauranted it won't happen again.

suscq

FWIW-you usually don't see just one fibroid, there are usually at least 2 from everything I've read. 

I have two intrauterine fibroids--meaning they are actually growing in the uterine wall.  One is the size of a softball, the other a baseball.  They have grown much larger than you normally see them (lucky me) and the growth process has caused me a good bit of pain.  The baby also likes to kick the fibroid which is very painful for me.  One of the fibroids is low in the front of my cervix and is preventing the baby from getting head down so she has been transverse most of the preg so it looks like I will have a c/s.  The same fibroid is also pushing on my bladder and I've had some UTI's during the pg.  The baby is fine and growing without a problem.