CAUSES OF FIBROID

Many diseases have turned pandemic in contemporary times and fibroid is one of them. Before now, fibroid wasn’t a major health issue among women and where it was evident particularly in women who appeared pregnant when they were sure they were not, it was managed with various herbs that the local herbalist knew about, or the condition was ignored and borne with equanimity. There were no sonographic machines to investigate the cause of the bloated tummy and excessive bleeding that often accompany menstrual periods, and surgery was not a ready option to undergo for reasons ranging from finance, stigma that a womb tampered cannot bear fruit, and a belief that the pseudo pregnancy is a spiritual problem.

But now almost every one out of five women of child bearing age complains of increased flow during their menstruation, undue pain and cramps during the menstruation(dysmenorhea), feeling of bloated tummy and fatigue and low energy indicative of anemia after their monthly period. All these are probable indications of the presence of fibroid in their uterus.

And many of the sufferers just make do with symptomatic management such the use of pain killers and the use of iron tablets after their menses while the real cause of their problems continues to get worse. The offshoot of this approach is that increasing number of women have problems with conception when they want it and that subjects them and their partners to huge expenses in search of solution to their problems plus the associated emotional, psychological and extended family stress that goes with it.

Many who take a positive step to see  obstetricians and gynaecologists may have their issues resolved with the use of medications with their myriads of side effects(as we will see later) while others may be persuaded to go in for surgery to remove the nagging fibroid. While the ‘clearance’ surgery which removes the fibroid along with the uterus that houses them may be beneficial to those who no longer have the need for biological children, others who need babies have to settle for myomectomy- a surgery that tries to remove the fibroid without tampering with the uterus. In this latter case, some of the lumps embedded inside the walls of the uterus may not be touched to preserve the uterus. The snag here is that myomectomy is not a once for all cure for fibroid: they are likely to grow again unless the woman is very close to her menopause or she adopts a lifestyle recommended in this book.

So what should women do to circumvent all these unpleasant scenarios and have a more healthy life with regards to the menace of fibroid and associated ovarian cysts that bug them?

‘ The first thing is to try and understand the physiological workings of the female reproductive organs and related hormones and so attempt to piece together what causes fibroid and how best to manage them.

My book explains in greater detail the hormonal rigmarole that goes on in a females body but we will give enough tit bits here to guide your choices. In a nutshell,in females, Progesterone is secreted by the corpus luteum in the ovaries during the luteal phase (i.e. after ovulation), as enzymes turn cholesterol to pregnenolone and then to progesterone. Progesterone continues the preparation of the endometrium for the possible implantation of an embryo as well as inhibit uterine contractions and the development of a new follicle. If no implantation occurs,  the levels of progesterone decrease, causing necrosis of the endometrial lining. This process is the origin of menstruation.

Besides this reproductive functions, progesterone has many other functions in the body .

In our discuss on fibroid formation, it is important to remember that progesterone  inhibits the contractile effect of eostrogen on the smooth muscle of the uterus, exerts some sort of sedation on certain muscles which undoubtedly ,includes the uterine muscles and also exerts some effects on gene expression.  

Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a condition in which the endometrium grows in places outside of the uterus,

During the menstrual cycle, estrogen stimulates growth of the endometrium, which is the inner lining of the uterus. After ovulation, progesterone secreted by the ovaries inhibits further growth of the endometrium and stimulates tissue remodeling. 

Progesterone directly inhibits the growth of endometrial cells or better still normalizes its growth while estrogen encourages blood clotting in the uterus and promotes proliferation of endometrial cells.

Progesterone has many other functions in the body apart from helping the uterus to remain calm( without much intertwining after ovulation) after ovulation and that includes making us sleep well, keeping one's libido active, numbing our pain receptors and a whole host of other physiological factors.

 The implication of these is that a woman(and even men as the case maybe) who has issues with sleeping properly, with depression, frequent headaches, fatigues with no justifiable work done, severe painful menstruation and joint pains, should ask her doctor to perform a hormone profile test for her and ascertain whether her progesterone level is normal or low among other considerations, of course. 

Back to fibroid issue: its been proven that women who have fibroid have oestrogen dominance which means that the stimulation of their oestrogen is higher than it should be, or there is a high dose of some foreign chemicals from external sources called xenoestrogen which mimic or heighten the effects of oestrogen hormone, or that progesterone is low due to a number of factors and so places oestrogen higher in ratio.

Oestrogen released during ovulation causes a lot of stretching to the uterine muscles and then progesterone interjects to relax the muscles to help any implanted fetus to stay put. But if there is no pregnancy, other actions take place to shed the prepared endometrial lining in a process called menstruation. So the stretching action of oestrogen, if unchecked, promotes fibroid growth. That's why oestrogen dominance are seen in women with fibroid.

Secondly, progesterone exerts an anti-inflammatory effect on the uterus which goes a long way in deterring fibroid growth. This effect tend to counter the resting effect of muscles after rigorous stretches and exercises. The science of muscle growth states that actual muscle growth happens during rest, after the exercises and if progesterone exerts rest on muscles for some needful effect, its anti-inflammatory effects should counter that rest-induced muscle growth.

So we have possible causes of fibroid: High ratio of oestrogen called oestrogen dominance; low progesterone level; lack of pregnancy which should have provided continuous considerable effect of oestrogen and progesterone and all the physiological effects that lower the level of progesterone in the female body until it reaches menopause. Those effects include, low cholesterol levels since cholesterol is a precursor of progesterone, stress which causes the release of cortisone- a stress hormone that limits the availability of progesterone, xenostrogen from pesticides, hair relaxers, food chemicals and other sources which mimic oestrogen and heighten their effects and lack of muscular exercises on the entire stomach and uterine muscles that would have challenged the fibroid growth as they happen.

So preventing, managing or clearing fibroid must take these factors into cognisance if sustainable success must be achieved. Check out Part 2 for solution to fibroid.

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