fibroids and pregnancy

[sparkle]

Hi, i'm new to this site and also a new mum and have already found loads of good advice and tips. This is about my sister-in-law who is in her mid-30's and just discovered she is 8 weeks pregnant with her first baby. Following her first visit to the midwife she also discovered she has very large fibroids, one the size of a melon, which had somehow gone undetected. She has been told that there is a great risk of miscarriage, she may have p[roblems conceiving again and may also have to have a hysterectomy. Has anyone else had a similar experience or can offer any advice. She has not really been able to find much info on the subject.

hi sparkle

i had two visits to casualty at 8 weeks due to severe pain and bleeding - eventually the cause was attributed to fibroids - although i think my largest is only grapefruit sized (!). we did some hunting on the internet and found the risks/problems you mention. i was also told the pain could well continue throughout pregnancy. well, the pain went after a few days, i had no problems with the pregnancy or labour (attributable to the fibroids at any rate) and now have a lovely baby boy. the point is, although your sister has them she may not find herself suffering from all the problems mentioned. there is little one can do once pregnant, except monitor the situation. i will see if i can dig out the stuff we got from the internet for you.

hope your sister finds some reassurance from a positive outcome.

hello again

have had a hunt round and we have binned all the stuff on fibroids. sorry. i know we found it by putting "uterine fibroids" into www.google.com. so perhaps your sister might be able to find more info that way.

sorry not to be more help.

Hi sparkle
Like your sil I didn't know I had a fibroid until I went for my first scan. I've since found out how common they can be - several women I know have them, to varying degrees. In my case I had (still have) one large one that grew to 9cm in diameter. They can increase in size with all the pregnancy hormones. Although it didn't cause any serious problems during pregnancy, my ds was delivered fit and healthy by elective c-section (he never engaged - we reckon he couldn't move!)and had a dent in his head which gradually went away from where he'd lain against the fibroid.
It all depends on how many fibroids there are & where they are located - if they're over the cervix for example a c-section is usually done. I was told by my consultant (& by a couple of friends who have had fibroids removed) that the risk of hysterectomy is when bleeding can't be stopped as they're being removed...which is why they left mine in, although they did point it out to everyone in the operating theatre including dp once ds was lifted out.
As bossykate says one can only monitor the situation and maybe get referred to a consultant who can give more information/reassurance.
Hope this is of some help

Know this is a bit late, it being May and all, but there is an alternative to hysterectomy for fibroid sufferers. PLEASE tell any woman you know who is being told she needs one to first have a look at a non invasive technique that gets rid of most fibroids but keeps the womb. It is called uterine fibroid embolization or uterine artery embolization - see these websites for more info. www.fibroids.com, www.uterinefibroids.com.

I'd be especially grateful to Bossykate or Bettys (and how is your SIL doing, Sparkle, OK I hope) for some advice for a friend who is 11 weeks pregnant with her first. She has several fibroids, and like Sparkle's SIL, one is big. She has had a few instances of losing quite a lot of clotty red blood, but each time a scan has confirmed the baby is still OK. Her latest was after her nuchal scan earlier this week, which was distressing, even though the scan results were reassuring.
Could the bleeding be coming from the fibroids? Is she at risk of suffering a late miscarriage from the presence of the big fibroid?
They were TTC nearly two years and were about to start IVF, so are very worried about this, and she is having trouble getting to see a consultant about it. Any more advice or comments would be great.

marina

yes the clotty bleeding could be the fibroids necrotising.

if i remember this correctly - pregnancy hormones stimulate the fibroids to grow. they can then "outgrow" their blood supply and will degenerate, causing the bleeding and possibly pain as well. i was told this could happen throughout pregnancy, but luckily in my case it stopped after approx 7 - 10 days (8 - 9 weeks pg). if your friend has fibroids she is probably used to heavy, clotty periods - a key symptom. it must be extremely distressing for her as one of the key indicators for miscarriage is also clotty bleeding...

we found a lot of material on the net on this - which we have now disposed of unfortunately. try google and input "uterine fibroids". alternatively, try www.netdoctor.co.uk - have found this very useful before. i don't remember reading about late miscarriage risk from this condition, but it could possibly affect the likelihood of a vaginal birth - depending on the size and positioning of the fibroids, e.g. a large one v. near the cervix.

can she kick up a fuss to be seen sooner? i think regular monitoring is key with this. she must obviously get every bleed checked thoroughly. i am a big fan of the early pregnancy assessment unit at st thomas's - it's a walk in, office hours mon - fri. if she is based in london maybe she could go there and be seen more quickly by one of the doctors there? just a thought.

as you know, after the initial worry, i had a trouble free pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy, normal baby, so it's not necessarily all over.

one final thing the pain can be really awful, it was so bad i was off work (and i was used to painful periods etc because of the fibroids - another symptom), so she should check out which painkillers can be taken in pregnancy, rather than just suffer on. i was given a hefty dose of something rather effective!

hth.

Marina,my experience was almost identical to bettys's. I had a scan at 8 weeks because of severe right -sided pain. I was convinced I had an ectopic pregnancy, and even went to the hospital with my bag packed ready for the op! They showed me the huge fibroid on the scan right next to the minute but perfectly OK baby. The pain persisted on/ off throughout the pregnancy, and I had a few more scans than usual, because, they said, they wanted to keep an eye on the fibroid, not the baby! They never mentioned any increased risk of m/c, early or late. At my 24 week A/N appointment the midwife cheerfully announced in front of the whole waiting room,"here's Mrs M-she's got a fibroid as big as the wain!!" (I live in SW Scotland, and I was big enough to have been carrying twins!).I had to have an elective C/S, as the fibroid was over the cervix, and there was no way that dd was coming out by the ususal route. My scar is somewhat larger and higher than usual, but still pretty neat.My fibriod wasn't causing any trouble prior to the pregnancy so they've left it there, but when I enquired if they could whip it out after the baby, my Obstetrician said "absolutely not, you could bleed like a stuck pig". Any way enough of this waffle, I had a healthy pregnancy in spite of a big fibroid!

Thank you both ever so much. She is London based, bossykate, so I will suggest St Thomas. She is quite a shy, unfussy person, and so is her dh, so although they are asking to be seen, she is maybe not pushing hard enough. They are booked into a big local hospital which is supposed to be good, but I've always found it too busy and impersonal.
Tissy, your midwife's approach made me chuckle! My friend already has a noticeable bump at 11 weeks and is self-conscious about it, so it's perhaps a good thing she is not based in SW Scotland!
V. reassuring to hear that as far as you both know it is not linked to late miscarriage. She has had so much to worry about over the past two years, I really hope she will be able to start enjoying being pregnant soon. She was such a good friend to me when I was recovering from my C-section and I am so looking forward to repaying the kindness.
I don't think anyone has said anything to her about the fibroids growing and then possibly necrotising in pregnancy, so I will definitely pass that on, along with the tips on Google searching.
And I will be sending her details of this site in due course - she is still too apprehensive to think of herself as a mum...