Smaller Fibroids And Menopause Being Linked Together
There is little understood about the role of fibroids, medically known as leiomyomata that lines the uterus during child bearing years, but research has shown a connection between fibroids and menopause and its affect on their growth. Fibroids are small, round cells that line the uterine muscles and their growth is dependant on estrogen and progesterone, although the exact quantities of the two hormones needed for these cells to reproduce remains a mystery. Researchers have been studying the size of fibroids and menopause has been shown to cause them to shrink.
Some women undergoing hormone replacement therapy have experienced an increase in size of these fibroid cells if they have been given estrogen and progesterone, but those receiving estrogen have not seen a big improvement in their size. It is the combination of hormones that affect the size of fibroids and menopause hormone imbalances are believed responsible for the shrinking of these cells inside the uterus.
Another issue that research has uncovered is that women receiving hormone replacement therapy experience fibroid growth during the therapy but when it is discontinued, the cells shrink back to the size they were prior to beginning the therapy. While the link between fibroids and menopause may be important to understand the end of the reproductive process, it does not explain many of the problems associated with menopause.
Results Undetermined When Therapy Is Stopped
While research has shown that fibroids stop growing and actually begin to shrink without the presence of estrogen and progesterone, there is some consensus that uterine bleeding is probable when hormone replacement therapy has been stopped due to the shrinking of the fibroid muscle cells. Research into the connection between fibroids and menopause hormone imbalances still have not formed a positive connection.
There are also situations in which a woman develops a benign fibroid cell and since they are self-replicating, all the cells growing from that one will be affected. It is believed that fibroids and menopause present in females of childbearing age are to help strengthen the uterine muscle. Birth controls pills also have been shown to cause fibroid growth and when it is stopped, the fibroids shrink to their regular size.
In continuing studies of fibroids and menopause's affect on these muscle cells researchers hope to help develop a pattern understanding of how hormones work together in the body to affect so many different areas. Mentally and physically, menopause is considered by many to be the big interrupter of a woman's life and health.
