Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffThere are few known risk factors for uterine fibroids, other than being a woman of reproductive age. Other factors include:
- Heredity. If your mother or sister had fibroids, you're at increased risk of also developing them.
- Race. Black women are more likely to have fibroids than are women of other racial groups. In addition, black women have fibroids at younger ages, and they're also likely to have more or larger fibroids.
Areas of research
Research examining other potential risk factors continues in these areas:
- Obesity. Some studies have suggested that obese women are at higher risk of fibroids, but other studies have not shown a link.
- Oral contraceptives. So far, strong data exist showing that women who take oral contraceptives have a lower risk of fibroids. This is generally true for all women, except those who start oral contraceptives between ages 13 and 16.
- Pregnancy and childbirth. Researchers have also looked at whether pregnancy and giving birth may have a protective effect, and so far pregnancy and childbirth seem to have a protective effect.
References
- Haney AF. Leiomyomata. In: Gibb RS, et al. Danforth's Obstetrics and Gynecology. 10th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2008:916.
- Baird DD, et al. High cumulative incidence of uterine leiomyoma in black and white women: Ultrasound evidence. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2003;188:100.
- Stewart EA. Epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and natural history of uterine leiomyomas. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists. Alternatives to hysterectomy in the management of leiomyomas. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2008;112:387.
- Evans P, et al. Uterine fibroid tumors: Diagnosis and treatment. American Family Physician. 2007;75:1503.
- Uterine fibroids: Frequently asked questions. The National Women's Health Information Center. http://womenshealth.gov/faq/uterine-fibroids.cfm. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Uterine fibroids. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. http://www.acog.org/publications/patient_education/bp074.cfm. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Stewart EA. Pathogenesis of uterine leiomyomas. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Management of uterine fibroids: An update of the evidence. Rockville, Md.: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. http://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/uterupdate/uterup.pdf. Accessed April 29, 2009.
- Stewart EA. Overview of treatment of uterine leiomyomas. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 22, 2009.
- Marshall LM, et al. A prospective study of reproductive factors and oral contraceptive use in relation to the risk of uterine leiomyomata. Fertility and Sterility. 1998;70:432.
- Faerstein E, et al. Risk factors for uterine leiomyoma: A practice-based case control study. I. African-American heritage, reproductive history, body size, and smoking. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2001;153:1.
- Chiaffarino F, et al. Use of oral contraceptives and uterine fibroids: Results from a case-control study. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 1999;106:857.
- Stewart EA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. May 13, 2009.
