Roger Harms, M.D., Mayo Clinic specialist in obstetrics-gynecology

I think when a woman has learned that she has even a benign tumor, (her) anxiety is increased substantially. And when her physician, perhaps quite rightly, is saying, "The thing to do for this is nothing," anxiety is not alleviated. Often it does take months and even years of follow-up to show that these fibroids are stable and are doing nothing before she feels fully confident that this tumor is not a risk to her. That is part of what makes treatment options difficult.

Then, I think it varies according to how she perceives her uterus and her femininity. There are certainly women (who) ally the presence of a uterus with part of the badge of womanhood, being capable of having children, and they worry that that status is being threatened by the presence of uterine fibroids. Those issues might well be linked to issues related to sexuality, desirability and the potential (for) a normal, enjoyable sex life after the loss of a uterus. These kinds of concerns about potential losses, I think, give rise to additional anxiety.

(With fibroids) being such a common condition, physicians are in a habit, I think, of giving the diagnosis of fibroids kind of short shrift. For that particular woman, that diagnosis can be very important and have an awful lot of impact. It behooves us as physicians to continually recognize the impact of this common disease.

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