fibroids in pregnancy

[Klara]

hi - what a panic today! went for my scan today and they found a fibroid the size of a mandarin orange inside me. They tell me its grown because of the estrogen as i last had a scan 4 months ago and it was normal. The gynae aloso said it was nothing to worry about and woud shrink after the birth
has anyone else edxperience of this - can't help feeling worried

klara

Yes I had a 10cm one! It did indeed shrink right down after the birth and has caused me no problems. HTH

thanks countess - its reassuring to know yu are not the only one! how many weeks were you when you found out about it - i'm currently 12 weeks - just worried it will continue to get bigger!

I think it was at the 12 week scan. I remember being faintly horrified but then forgetting about it very quickly.

I had one too when pregnant with DS. They picked it up at my first scan at five weeks and then we watched it grow until it was about the size of a ping pong ball. Around 30 weeks the fibroid started to outgrow its blood supply and started dying which was quite painful for me. Mine was low in the uterus so DS was sitting on top of it and when I would wee and my bladder would empty it would put more pressure on the fibroid and it really hurt. Never bothered me at all before that point.

I was put on painkillers and just told to wait it out. Within a week the pain went away and when I had my next scan the fibroid was totally gone. No fibroids this pregnancy (I'm 31 weeks now) so I guess it was just one of those things.

I was told that they don't really cause any problems unless they're blocking the cervix. I'm sure you'll get more info and will probably see a consultant at some point to discuss it. That's what happened with me.

I've got one that blocked the cervix, so I had to have a section, but otherwise, there were no problems, and it doesn't bother me much now.

thanks so much for all your responses. I saw my Gynaecologist yesterday afternoon (the benefits of not having to deal with the Uk health system - you can see a consultant FAST here in our local hospital) who did reassure me. He seems to think the biggest risk is that it ends up blocking the cervix - I am just scared of a premature delivery which is another risk factor. Anyway - they are going to scan me every 6- 8 weeks from now on to keep an eye on it.

I just go so annoyed at the casual way the scan operator at the nuchal scan test said to me "oh - you seem to have a growth in your womb"...WHAT!! She then went on to say "it looks like a fibroid, but I'm not a gynaecologist". I got the fright of my life at that point. She had as my DH described it - about as much tact as you'd find in a tin of tomato soup.

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I didn't pay that much attention after that and all i can remember her saying about the baby was that the neck measurement was 1mm (which I think is very low) and that the brain was fine and the size was normal. It was moving around a bit, but not as manically active as dh was at 12 weeks....what else do they usually do at a 12 week scan?

klara