Study of the Hormonal Changes Associated with Uterine Fibroids in Wadi AlShatti Region

Abstract

Uterine fibroids are benign tumors that arise from the smooth muscle cells lining the uterus. These tumors affect women during the reproductive years and shrink in size after menopause, which indicates that they depend for their growth on hormones secreted from the ovaries. This study aimed to estimate the concentration of estrogen and progesterone in women with uterine fibroids and study their relationship with them. The study included married and unmarried women attending the general hospital and private clinics in Brack City. The study was conducted on 40 patients with uterine fibroids who agreed to undergo the study., in addition to 22 samples from healthy women who were used as control samples, their ages ranged between 20 and 49, and their body mass index .21.5 – 33 kg/m2. Blood samples were taken from them to measure estrogen, progesterone and of hemoglobin concentration. And also, information about the apparent symptoms of the condition was taken in the questionnaire. The results of this study showed that there was no significant difference between patients and control groups in average ages, while they did differ in body mass index, which were respectively 26.69 and 24.13 kg/m2 (P < 0.05). The results also showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in the concentration of hemoglobin and estrogen in the blood, they were respectively 10.13 and 12.4 g/dl and 104.9 and 62.9 ng/ml, while there was no significant difference between the two groups in progesterone concentration (P > 0.05). We conclude that both body mass index and estrogen may be play a role in the development of fibroids. While the effect of progesterone was not clarified, some risk factors were found, such as social status and family history, which caused recurrence of the infection. It was also found that fibroids negatively affected fertility, and thus patients suffer from delayed childbearing.