Your body likely experiences enough stress and discomfort every month, considering the bloating, bleeding, mood swings, and other symptoms of your menstrual cycle. But when uterine fibroids come into the picture, you’ll find that all of the aforementioned symptoms become that much harder to control.
In specific, weight gain may present as a common fibroid symptom among many women. And the primary culprit for this specific indicator?
Your hormones.
The “How” of Hormones
“Uterine fibroids are caused by a hormone imbalance,” according to Livestrong. “The hormones involved in a woman’s menstrual cycle cause fibroids to grow, which makes it likely that women of reproductive age … will experience them.”
Estrogen and progesterone, specifically, are the hormones that fundamentally impact fibroid development and growth, meaning that a fibroid’s size may ebb and flow depending on a woman’s current stage of life.
For example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that fibroids frequently grow at a faster rate when a woman is pregnant, as her hormone levels increase during this time. Likewise, a woman’s fibroids are more likely to shrink or stop growing altogether once a woman reaches menopause.
The “Why” of Weight Gain
As hormones play a role in regulating a person’s metabolism, when they are imbalanced, it can naturally lead to instability in the metabolic system, thereby causing weight gain.
For this reason, many women have turned to hormone therapy to treat their symptoms, stop or limit fibroid growth, and more. That being said, weight gain is also a side effect of hormone therapy, meaning the treatment in and of itself may also be to blame.
In all, the weight gain involved in the presence of uterine fibroids is twofold — not only can the hormonal imbalances that cause fibroids also cause a woman’s weight to fluctuate, but the larger a fibroid grows, the greater its weight will be within a woman’s abdomen.
The “Where” of Your Solution
If you’re a woman living with and combatting the discomfort of uterine fibroids, you may still be a candidate for hormone therapy. Of course, there are other minimally-invasive options also available that are longer-lasting by comparison, such as uterine fibroid embolization (UFE).
UFE is not only safer than both myomectomy and hysterectomy, but it requires no general anesthesia and features a patient satisfaction rate of over 95%.
What’s more? You can safely undergo this procedure with a locally-owned, operated, and trusted outpatient physician.
Here at Duval Vascular & Fibroid Center, we offer UFE in addition to a variety of clinically-proven treatments for uterine fibroids. In short, we’re here to ensure that you are provided with the knowledge, the resources, and the options you need to find lasting relief!
Don’t let uterine fibroids cramp your style. To learn more, contact us today by calling (904) 423-6017!
