What Causes Fibroids?
Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths that appear during a woman’s childbearing years. They are neither cancer-causing, nor do they increase a woman’s risk of cancer. Scientists and researchers have been trying to determine what causes fibroids for years, and the answer can be as elusive as the most microscopic cell.
It’s been estimated that as many as 75 percent of women have uterine fibroids at some point in their lives. Most go unnoticed because of the absence of symptoms. But when these growths develop from the smooth uterine tissue, a cell begins to reproduce repeatedly. That cell becomes a whitish rubbery mound that can continue to grow, stay the same or even shrink and disappear over time.
Fibroids can be so small that they are microscopic and so large – one mass removed from a woman was reportedly 140 pounds – they can affect a woman’s everyday life. The larger varieties can distort the uterus, and they come singularly or in multiples. Some are so large they can expand the uterus to the ribcage.
So what causes fibroids? Doctors don’t know. But clinical observations point to a number of factors, including hormones, genetic alterations and other chemicals introduced to the body. Fibroids contain genetic mutations not observed in other uterine cells. Estrogen and progesterone are the hormones that kick in during a woman’s child-bearing years, the only time fibroids are found, and insulin can also affect fibroid growth.
Heredity is another culprit. If mom and big sis had fibroids, chances are you will too. Black women are more likely than any other racial group to develop fibroids (at a rate of over 80 percent), and pregnancy and childbirth may have a protective effect, degreasing the risk of uterine fibroids.
Some other factors researchers are eyeing include obesity (inconclusive as yet) and the use of oral contraceptives: strong data shows that women who take oral contraceptives are less likely to develop fibroids. That is, unless they began oral contraception before the age of 16.
So even though they are not dangerous in most cases, and in many they even go undetected, science has not determined what causes fibroids.
