By Kavita Bajeli-Datt, IANS
New Delhi : Fibroids, or non-cancerous tumours of the womb, are fast emerging as a leading cause of infertility among Indian women, according to a new study.
Prakash Trivedi, the Mumbai-based doctor who conducted research for 16 years and released the results at an event here Tuesday, says around 25 million women in India suffer from fibroids.
“The study has clearly shown fibroids are one of the major causes of infertility among women in India. We found that it is on the rise and there are many reasons for it, including late marriages that result in late pregnancies,” Trivedi told IANS.
He studied 2,142 women and found that women who are red meat eaters or are overweight and have hypertension tend to get more affected by fibroids. “They are also transferred to a woman from her blood relative,” he said.
While the good news is that fibroid removal could increase the chances of pregnancy, Trivedi cautions that surgery should be conducted only if these tumours are found to be directly responsible for infertility.
Trivedi, who is the scientific director of the National Institute of Laser and Endoscopic Surgery and Aakar IVF Centre in Mumbai, said the presence of fibroids in the cavity or tubal blockage means infertility in a woman.
“Extremely large fibroids that look like beetle nuts make the sperms travel a long distance, which also is one of the major reasons for infertility. Also, the chances of abortions increases,” he added.
The presence of fibroids, which grow from the muscle layers of the uterus and affect women aged from 18 to 50, also causes hormone imbalance that again explains why after many years of marriage a woman is unable to conceive, he said.
There is 20 times more possibility of a woman in her 40s being affected with fibroids compared to her younger peers, said Trivedi.
Trivedi, who was awarded for his breakthrough study by the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society of India (FOGSI), an organisation that has 22,000 doctors as its members, said the removal of fibroids, which are of 13 types, increases the conception rate.
The fibroids of an infertile patient should be removed in case of multiple ones or when there are over four fibroids of more than four cm in size or large fibroids from five cm to 18 cm in size with more than three years of infertility.
“Fibroids should also be removed if a woman finds herself in constant pain or it is hurting her tissue or gets excessive bleeding,” he said.
“The surgery to remove the fibroids is quiet easy,” said Trivedi, who has designed a new technique for ensuring that blood loss is less during fibroid removal, leading to speedier recovery.
Apart from surgery, the new drug Fadrazole has also shown promise of reducing the size of fibroids, he said.