Can uterine fibroids really be expelled by "gas"? The unexpected answer makes people ponder...

When many female friends encounter something that makes them angry, they will persuade themselves: "Don't be angry. It's not worth it to get uterine fibroids because of such things." This awareness of actively maintaining emotional health is commendable, but then again, can negative emotions really contribute to the growth of uterine fibroids?

Oh, it really does...

What are uterine fibroids?

Uterine fibroids, or uterine leiomyoma, are benign tumors formed by the excessive proliferation of single cells in the myometrium of the uterus. A single uterine fibroid tends to grow into a relatively regular spherical shape. Objectively speaking, the internal fiber structure is quite similar to beef balls, hand-made beef balls without starch. If multiple fibroids grow crowded, they may merge into irregular shapes.

If the uterine fibroids are small, they may not cause any symptoms. However, if they are located in the wrong place or grow large, they may affect menstruation, causing dysmenorrhea, increased menstrual flow and prolonged menstruation. In the long run, they may even cause iron deficiency anemia due to excessive menstrual blood loss, causing further health damage.

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The uterus is located in the pelvic cavity, with the bladder in front and the rectum behind. If uterine fibroids protrude from the surface of the uterus or grow too large and compress the bladder or rectum, it will cause a series of compression symptoms, such as pelvic pain and distension, frequent urination, difficulty emptying the bladder, constipation, etc.

If uterine fibroids change the shape of the uterine cavity (press against the uterine cavity), it will also have an adverse effect on conception and pregnancy. Uterine fibroids that change the shape of the uterine cavity can reduce the success rate of pregnancy and increase the rate of spontaneous abortion. Fibroids can undergo red degeneration during pregnancy, causing abdominal pain, and are associated with a variety of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as abnormal fetal position, placental abruption, premature birth, increased cesarean section rate, and postpartum hemorrhage.

There are many risk factors for uterine fibroids, and emotions are one of them

Estrogen and progesterone both play an important role in the pathogenesis of uterine fibroids. Uterine fibroids often occur during the childbearing years. After menopause, with the decline of ovarian function and the decrease of estrogen and progesterone levels, the uterine fibroids of most people will stop growing or shrink to a certain extent. Most uterine fibroids found during pregnancy will shrink or even disappear after delivery, which may also be due to the changes in estrogen and progesterone.

Emotions can also affect the risk of uterine fibroids. Studies have shown that people who are under excessive daily stress, often suppress anger, and experience major life events have a higher incidence of uterine fibroids. In a meta-analysis of 7 studies, it was also found that chronic psychological stress was positively correlated with the risk of uterine fibroids.

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So, can maintaining good emotional health prevent uterine fibroids? Not necessarily, there are many risk factors for uterine fibroids.

Whole genome sequencing has found that genetic factors are also significantly associated with the incidence of uterine fibroids. Obesity, excessive red meat intake, high glycemic load diet, drinking, hypertension, early age of menarche, long intervals between births, exposure to certain harmful environmental factors, etc. will increase the risk of uterine fibroids.

So, you can avoid one, but not the other. You can avoid the controllable ones, but you can't avoid the uncontrollable ones such as hormone changes and genetic genes. In this case, it is better to calm down and not worry too much about the risk of uterine fibroids due to a bad mood once or twice. Just take care of your mood, eat healthily, have a regular work and rest schedule, exercise moderately, and try to maintain healthy living habits.

If you are diagnosed with uterine fibroids, don't blame yourself for not paying enough attention in your life. First, there are various risk factors that are hard to prevent. Second, uterine fibroids are the most common benign tumor in women, and the experience of treatment and control is very mature, so don't worry too much.

If you find out about uterine fibroids, you can deal with it like this

As the most common benign tumor in women, the chance of uterine fibroids becoming malignant is very low, less than 0.1%. Therefore, the overall approach is to actively treat them if they do not cause clinical symptoms or affect pregnancy preparation; if they cause clinical symptoms, affect pregnancy preparation plans and pregnancy safety, or show a tendency to malignancy.

Surgical treatment is the main treatment for uterine fibroids, including myomectomy, hysterectomy and other surgical options, as well as non-surgical conservative treatment options such as ultrasound confocal (HIFU) and radiofrequency ablation. The surgical route is also divided into hysteroscopy, laparoscopy and traditional laparotomy, which needs to be determined according to the specific situation and after consultation with the doctor.

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If only menstrual abnormalities exist, oral contraceptives, progesterone intrauterine sustained-release systems, hemostatic drugs, etc. can be used to relieve bleeding symptoms after excluding contraindications, but the treatment effects of these methods are unsatisfactory and cannot completely solve the root cause of uterine fibroids. Before menopause, stopping the medication may cause recurrence of menstrual symptoms. Since these drugs can only relieve bleeding symptoms, if uterine fibroids further increase and cause other clinical symptoms such as dysmenorrhea, menstrual changes, and compression symptoms, surgical treatment may still be required.

In addition, some medical institutions provide uterine artery embolization, endometrial ablation and other surgeries as treatments for excessive menstruation caused by uterine fibroids, but this has a specific population and the results vary from person to person. There are also problems such as thrombus detachment, decreased ovarian function, and residual endometrial bleeding. It needs to be implemented with caution after consultation with a professional doctor and is not suitable for everyone.

In general, there are many optional strategies for treating uterine fibroids, which need to be considered comprehensively based on multiple factors such as the specific condition, fertility plan, treatment age, expected effect, etc. Therefore, if you have treatment-related needs, talk more with doctors in regular hospitals and learn more about the pros and cons of various options to determine the most suitable option for you.

In conclusion: There are often things in life that make people's emotions fluctuate, so it is normal to have mood swings and not be able to stay calm all the time. The impact of emotions on health is not limited to uterine fibroids.

Rather than emphasizing the negative effects of emotions on health, I hope to help everyone let go of their psychological burdens, accept their emotions calmly, and learn to reconcile with themselves. If people are always worried about the negative effects of emotions, aren’t they also creating new negative emotions?

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Planning and production

Author: Doctor Feidao Duanyu

Reviewer: Lan Yibing, deputy chief physician, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine