For Claudia, 41, periods stopped feeling normal a while ago. They now last almost nine days, she gets up in the middle of the night to change an overnight pad, and she leaves work with a sweater tied around her waist just in case. Her sister told her it's just age. Marisela had no complaints at all; she went in for a pregnancy check, and next to the baby the screen showed a round lump in the wall of the uterus that nobody expected.
Both women had the same thing: fibroids, also called myomas or leiomyomas. They are among the most common findings in women who still have periods, yet many go years without knowing what's behind their symptoms. Here's what fibroids are, the trouble they tend to cause, how they show up on a pelvic ultrasound, and when bleeding stops being a clinic matter and becomes an emergency.
Fibroids in plain words
The uterus is mostly muscle. A fibroid is an overgrowth of that same muscle that forms a firm knot or ball. According to the National Institutes of Health's consumer site (MedlinePlus), they are noncancerous growths and very common between the ages of 30 and 50. A woman may have just one or several, ranging from seed-sized to much larger.
They feed on hormones made by the ovaries, which is why they rarely show up before a girl's first period and often shrink after menopause. Family history plays a part too: if your mother or aunts had them, keep that in mind.
The key point: plenty of women have fibroids and feel nothing. They're found by chance, the way Marisela's was, and in those cases keeping an eye on them is often enough.
Symptoms many women learn to live with
When fibroids do cause trouble, it rarely arrives overnight. It builds month by month until it feels like part of life. See whether several of these sound familiar:
- Very heavy periods, with large clots, or needing a pad and a tampon at the same time.
- Periods lasting more than a week, or spotting between them.
- Pressure or a heavy feeling low in the belly, as if you were carrying something.
- Needing to pee often, even at night, because a bigger uterus presses on the bladder.
- Constipation or lower back pain with no other clear cause.
- Pain during sex.
- A rounder belly without weight gain, to the point someone asks if you're expecting.
None of these proves you have a fibroid; other conditions can feel similar. But if two or three ring true, that's reason enough to get checked.
Location changes everything
Fibroids differ by more than size. Where they grow shapes what you feel:
| Type | Where it grows | What it often causes |
|---|---|---|
| Submucosal | Into the inside of the uterus, under the lining | Heavy bleeding, even when the fibroid is small |
| Intramural | Within the muscular wall | Long periods, an enlarged uterus, pressure |
| Subserosal | Outward, on the surface of the uterus | Pressure on the bladder or bowel, sometimes with normal periods |
| Pedunculated | Hanging from a stalk, inside or outside | Occasional pain if the stalk twists |
That's how one woman with a tiny fibroid can bleed heavily while another with a large one only notices more trips to the bathroom.
What appears on screen during a pelvic ultrasound
At our clinic, a pelvic ultrasound is used to look at the uterus and ovaries when there's pelvic pain, irregular bleeding or very heavy periods. It's one of the most common ways fibroids are found, and it involves no radiation.
On screen, a fibroid usually looks like a rounded, well-outlined area with a texture that differs from the surrounding muscle, sometimes darker and sometimes with a striped pattern. During the scan it's possible to measure each one, count how many there are, see which part of the uterus they sit in and check whether the uterus as a whole is larger than expected. The clinic's medical team goes over those images with you and explains in Spanish what was seen.
Sometimes the view through the belly isn't enough: very small fibroids inside the cavity, a tilted uterus or an ovary that deserves a closer look. As general information, in those situations a transvaginal ultrasound or another imaging test is sometimes ordered; if you need one, the clinic's medical team guides the referral and tells you what it's for.
Showing up ready
Plan on arriving with your bladder full, which means three or four glasses of water roughly sixty minutes ahead and no bathroom stop before the scan. A full bladder nudges the bowel aside so the uterus is easier to see. The exam takes 15 to 30 minutes, and all you'll feel is cool gel and some pressure on your lower belly.
Beyond the water, it really helps to have a few notes on your phone:
- The date your last period started.
- How many days it lasts and how many pads you go through on the heaviest days.
- Whether you pass clots, and how big they are next to a coin.
- When you first noticed the change.
If there's any chance you're pregnant, say so when you arrive; a pregnancy test helps decide which kind of ultrasound fits.
The blood side: when your period drains your energy
Losing a lot of blood every month, month after month, can leave you anemic. Many women notice the anemia before the fibroid: tiredness that sleep doesn't fix, getting winded on the stairs, dizziness when standing up quickly, brittle nails or an odd urge to chew ice.
That's why, with heavy periods, it often makes sense to pair the ultrasound with blood tests such as a complete blood count, which shows whether your hemoglobin is low. The scan helps explain where the bleeding may be coming from; the bloodwork tells you how much it's taking out of you.
After the scan: questions worth asking
Finding a fibroid doesn't mean something has to be done right away. What comes next depends on your symptoms, the size and location, your age and whether you'd like to get pregnant in the future. A few useful questions for your gynecology visit:
- How many fibroids were seen, and where are they?
- Do they explain my symptoms, or should we look for another cause?
- Should the ultrasound be repeated later to see whether they change?
- Do I need to be seen by a specialist?
There are several ways to manage fibroids, but they're chosen case by case, without rushing, with whoever handles your follow-up. Be wary of remedies that promise to "dissolve" them in a few weeks.
When not to wait for a clinic visit
If heavy periods or a known fibroid bring on any of the following, the right place is the emergency room, or dial 911:
- Bleeding that soaks through a pad or tampon every hour for several hours in a row.
- Strong dizziness, feeling faint or actually fainting.
- Severe belly pain that comes on suddenly, especially with fever or vomiting.
- Heavy bleeding or strong pain while pregnant.
These aren't situations to sit on until a scheduled scan.
Your period shouldn't run your calendar
If you plan outings around your heavy days, or someone once told you there was "something in your uterus" and you never followed up, a pelvic ultrasound is a sensible place to start. Clínica Hispana Nueva Salud is at 7640 Bellfort Ave in southeast Houston (77061), near Hobby Airport. Walk in, or message us first if you're unsure how to prepare; bring notes on your recent periods and any earlier ultrasound report, even one from another country, so the medical team has something to compare against.
