Healthy Living

What Are Subserosal Fibroids?

Subserosal Fibroids

Subserosal fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop within the uterine wall. They are also referred to as myomas, leiomyoma or fibromyomas, and uterine fibroids. Research has established that 25 percent of women experience fibroids severe enough to trigger symptoms, and 40 percent of women actually suffer from fibroid tumor growths that are asymptomatic. Subserosal fibroids aren’t common among black women.

Three Types of Uterine Fibroids:

Submucosal fibroids
Subserosal or Subserous fibroids
Intramural fibroids

What are Subserosal Fibroids?

Subserosal fibroids occur on the outer lining of the uterus and constantly grow outwards giving your uterus a knobby look. Sometimes, these tumors might be linked to the uterus via a stem-like base. This type of fibroids is called pedunculated subserosal fibroids. They’re often difficult to differentiate from ovarian masses.

As time progresses, subserosal fibroids might grow larger, but unlike the submucosal that immensely distort the shape and size of the uterine cavity, especially when they grow beneath the uterine walls. These fibroids don’t typically disrupt the size of the uterine cavities. Similar to intramural fibroids that develop inside the uterine lining, subserosal fibroids are common among menopausal women as well.

Symptoms of Subserosal Fibroids

For most women, subserosal fibroids exhibit no symptoms. Problems result primarily from large or pedunculated subserosal fibroid tumors. The commonest symptoms associated with this condition include:

Abdominal cramping accompanied with detrimental pains
Pelvic pains
Constipation and bloating
Destruction of the kidney due to intense contraction of the ureter
Excessive pressure or feeling of heaviness
Frequent urination

Since subserosal fibroids are situated on the external uterine lining, they typically don’t influence the patient’s menstrual flow.

Can subserosal fibroids trigger infertility?

Medical experts believe that subserosal fibroids don’t cause infertility. Nevertheless, bigger and pedunculated subserous fibroids might have a detrimental impact on pregnancy or even fertility. Since they’re located on the external surface of the woman’s uterus, when they become larger, they tend to exert excessive pressure on the surrounding tissues or even retrieve their blood supply from them.

At times, enlarged subserosal fibroids might shrink the fallopian tubes. Under such circumstances, infertility may occur as a result of the blockage caused by the fallopian tubes, hence preventing the sperm and egg from fertilizing. Often, enlarged subserosal fibroids might disrupt the pelvic anatomy making it impossible for the fallopian tube to receive an egg during ovulation. This ends up causing infertility.

Subserosal fibroids might also influence pregnancy. Throughout pregnancy, these fibroid tumors grow together with the baby and the uterus. As a result, the uterus becomes severely cramped, interfering with the growth of the baby, as well as initiating pregnancy complications and challenges during labor.

Treatment Options

Unfortunately, prescription treatments for fibroids aren’t available. Medical therapies are often taken to relieve the symptoms brought about by uterine fibroids. Remember, these kinds of treatments are just temporary.

Surgical Therapy

This is so far the most effective treatment for subserosal fibroids. Because they’re located on the outer lining of the uterus, laparoscopy has proved to be the most functional technique for their termination.

In this procedure, the laparoscope is inserted into the uterus via the belly button. This equipment plucks the fibroids, breaks them into tiny pieces and finally eliminates them.