Fibroid measurements

I found out July 30th that I have fibroids. The lady doing the ultrasound said I have huge fibroids and I have them everywhere. She gave me the measurement of one of them as 17cmx10cmx6cm. My gyno says my uterus is about the size of a 24weeks preganancy. I am not sure what all this means. I have chosen to have a hysterectomy. My mother had her around my age because of the same problems. Could someone, anyone help me understand what these measurements really mean?

Hi larojahi2 and

We’re happy you joined the Hystersisters community! There is a ton of solid information on the site, and the members have unlimited cyber-hugs to dispense and experiences to share with you at every stage of your journey to good health!

If you haven’t already done so, please do yourself a favor and register to receive Hysterectomy Checkpoints. It’s one of the best features of the site, in my opinion -- designed to accompany you through the entire hysterectomy experience from start to finish, and beyond!

You can take the opportunity to prepare yourself for what’s ahead by reading the Pre-Op Articles. You might find the following particularly helpful:

Is Sex Really The Same?

Coping With Pre-Op Anxiety & Fear

What to Expect at the Hospital

What to Bring to the Hospital

How Others Can Help

You might enjoy browsing through the stories in the Tell Your Hyst-Story section. Each story has a title which includes the type of surgery that was performed so it's easy to find the ones which match the type of hysterectomy you are scheduled to have.

My gynecologist described my "enlarged fibroid uterus" as being the size of a grapefruit, instead of the (as he characterized it "normal") size of a lime. Other gyns use the gestation (in terms of weeks) of a developing embryo to try to convey to their patients the size of their fibroid(s).

In my opinion, the measurements are irrelevant. What matters is if the existence of the fibroids are causing troublesome symptoms for you...such as excessive menstrual bleeding, or (like me) low back pain. I have read about women with relatively gigantic fibroids who had no problems whatsoever in terms of their quality of life. Everyone seems to be unique in how their own body adjusts (or doesn't adjust) to these benign tumor displacing other organs.

Many s and Best Wishes,

Hi, I just checked my metric ruler. 17 cm is just under 7 inches. If you spread your hand out wide, that would be a bit more than the end of your thumb to the tip of your index finger.

Hope that helps.
Sandra

Hi!

I can very much sympathize with you! I was told all sorts of crazy things about the relative size of my fibroids and realistically nothing made sense to me (oranges? grapefruits? 12 weeks? 24 weeks?). It certainly did not help to be told at one point that the average fibroid is 1 cm! So what does that mean? It is especially confusing because there is such a difference of opinion on what constitutes "large". I've done a lot of research on the matter and I can highly recommend one book that I bought on the subject. The title is Fibroids and the author is Johanna Skilling. This book has a lot of good information based on collecting and amagamating information from many sources. I htink the main points to consider are this:

Fibriods vary in terms of size and placement, and just like others are mentioning, what is most important is whether or not they are affecting you. Some women are lucky enough that fibriods form in places that do not interfere with other organs. For instance, my sister-in-law has a fibroid that is about 11 cm x 12 cm and she never knew it was there and it doesn't bother her at all. Another friend had one that was smaller than that and it troubled her constantly until she had a hysterectomy (which solved the problem nicely she says). My mother ignored hers until it reached - get this - the size of a basket ball! It wasn't until she couldn't bend over properly that she felt it was an issue. I personally have fibroids very similar in size to your own and from what I can gather from a whole host of sources, you and I are in top end of the middle of the range of average sizes. DON'T let this scare you! I was terrified at first when that word "huge" was trotted out, but you WILL be OK. Really in the end these are just uppity balls of muscle tissue that formed becasue a cell got confused and started growing inappropriately. Some are just better at that than others.

I hope this helps and my best to you!!!

THANK YOU, so much. All the information you gave me helps a lot. I have had a lot of female problems and my previous Dr. always said it was because i was overweight. I always wondered how other women coped with such horrible periods.

I thought that every womans period had horrible pain, long days of heavy bleeding, back pain, constipation, pressure, cramps and over the last year (numbness down my left leg). I figured it was a part of getting older after having children. This has been going on for the last 10-12 years and no doctor ever said anything. Then all of a sudden i find out that i have fibroid. I'm not really scared...I'm more mad because I have suffered for so long when I didnt have to.

Thanks to you! It helps in return to know I am not the only one that was told such outrageous things! Some venting must follow here since I had quite a search for help...

One doctor this year actually said to me "suck it up princess, soon you will be in menopause" (I was 42 at the time so not likely). His diagnosis was that because I am middle-aged I am now depressed and just looking for attention. Another one this year told me that what I described to him doesn't happen and I was imagining it! This was in spite of the fact that I was sitting there and hemmoraging in front of him: he still denied the all too checkable evidence. Apparently I was supposed to just tolerate the 40 day periods with flooding - in fact one other doctor told me that was normal. Really? And the set of doctors who found the fibroids had the gall to ask me how I could let things get like this! As if I grew these things on purpose and neglected to do anything!!! Needless to say, I was furious when I read about what is actually the average experience for women in this area. And all this nonsense about weight - it is the scapegoat for medical laziness all too often in my opinion.

Thank goodness I finally found a doctor who took this seriously (although that in itself was initially alarming), and of course this website. It has been immensely helpful to see what other women have gone through and know I am not alone. I think it can be healthy to be mad since it keeps one going along the path to better help and an improved quality of life. So best of luck and thanks for putting up with the venting!!!

The venting is great. It helps me alot to hear your story. All these years I was suffering I had the Doctor, a small female and she kept telling me that all my problems were because of my weight. Even when I started lossing the weight and the problem didnt change, in fact things were getting worse. I would bleed so heavy that i would get lightheaded and soooo tired when i worked out. My feet would go numb, but she would tell me I need to lose more weight.
I thank God for my new Doctor. I went in to see him to get some diet pills and he looked at me and asked how I felt because I looked pale. He asked my about my period and I told him the same thing I had told my old doctor. He looked in my eyes and check my mouth and asked to feel my stomach. My uterus is big enough to feel very easily and he was surprised. He instantly sent me for an ultrasound where i find out i have huge fibroids. All this time i had been killing myself trying to lose weight so i wouldnt bleed to death.
I'm so glad this website is in place, because now i dont feel so stupid for not knowing i had fibroid instead of just a weight problem.

Funny I have the same symptoms including numbness in left leg. My fibroid is on the left side. I hope that after surgery I am as good as new!

d624 - My fibroid is on the left side also. That's funny. How long have you know about your fibroid.