If you are contemplating starting a family and you are suffering from fibroids, it is natural to have a degree of concern.
You may well be wondering how can fibroids affect pregnancy and whether getting pregnant with fibroids can be difficult.
Firstly, it is important that you understand that the majority of women who have fibroids go on to have successful pregnancies.
Smaller fibroids which are located in places which do not affect the pregnancy seem to have little impact.
Fibroids rarely grow during pregnancy, indeed they do sometimes shrink due to hormonal influences.
However, they almost always grow back to their pre-pregnancy size after delivery.
Fibroids can affect pregnancy if they are located at the entrance to the cervix or fallopian tubes as they can block the passage of sperm making conception impossible.
In addition, fibroids affect pregnancy if they are large and growing just under the womb lining (submucosal) as they can distort the inside of the womb, making implantation impossible or causing an early miscarriage.
Fibroids can sometimes bring delivery forward by a couple of weeks and if this is the case, it is unlikely to have any impact on the baby.
However, occasionally delivery can be protracted due to fibroids and if one happens to be positioned lower down in the uterus, a cesarean delivery might be considered.
If you are not yet pregnant and wondering how can fibroids affect pregnancy, it would be wise to consider using natural treatments to shrink them and therefore minimize their effect.