Women's Health
Ask the doctor: Heavy bleeding, fibroids, and polyps
But the fibroids and uterine polyps you have can also cause heavy bleeding. Fibroids are growths of muscle and fibrous tissue in the wall of the uterus (see illustration). They often develop in women between the ages of 35 and 50 and can make menstrual bleeding heavy and full of clots, before and during perimenopause. Uterine polyps are overgrowths of the endometrial tissue that lines the uterus, as opposed to the muscular tissue that makes up the uterine wall. Fibroids and uterine polyps can be cancerous, but that's rare (a chance of less than one in 1,000 for fibroids and about one in 100 for uterine polyps), and having them does not increase a woman's risk for developing uterine cancer. They are benign growths that, unlike a cancerous tumor, are incapable of spreading cells to other parts of the body.
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