Hello Dr. Parker,
I have read your website https://www.fibroidsecondopinion.com/ and it has provided me with a wealth of information. I hope you don’t mind me asking you a question in regards to degenerating fibroids. Do degenerated fibroids need to be removed? Is there harm to having necrotic tissue in the body? Two began to degenerate while I was pregnant last year. Now one shows central areas of necrotic tissue.
Thanks,
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
There is no danger to having degenerated fibroids in your body. Sometimes the degeneration can cause pain or low grade fever, but usually nothing more than that. The degenerated fibroid is a bit like the inside of a tree – not dead or decomposed, but not as alive as normal tissue. Sometimes some of the degenerated tissue is reabsorbed by the body, but often it stays there and causes no problems.
The following is excerpted from: https://www.fibroidsecondopinion.com/fibroid-symptoms/
Fibroids are living tissue, and need blood and oxygen to survive. If a fibroid grows quickly, blood vessels feeding the fibroid may not be able to grow fast enough to supply the new tissue with enough blood and oxygen. If this happens, the fibroid undergoes a process called degeneration, or cell death. As the cells in the fibroid die, chemical substances are released that cause pain and swelling in the uterus. This pain may be severe but is not usually associated with any serious problems. If these chemical substances from a degenerating fibroid reach the bloodstream, they may cause a low fever. As some of the fibroid dies, the blood supply to the rest of the fibroid will be enough to keep it alive and healthy. At this point, the pain will go away. This process may take a few weeks. When pain develops in a woman with fibroids, examination by a physician is important to help figure out the source of the problem.
If you have a degenerating fibroid, a heating pad on your abdomen will be comforting, and pain medication should provide relief for a few days or weeks until the pain begins to subside. In rare instances, a fibroid on a stalk (pedunculated fibroid) can twist around on the stalk so that no blood can get through the stalk to the fibroid. If that happens, the entire fibroid begins to die, and the pain becomes very severe and surgery is usually necessary to remove the dying fibroid.
I hope this is helpful,
Bill Parker, MD
