Dr Prosper Igboeli, a gynaecologist, on Monday advised women to eat foods rich in vitamin D, as lack of it in the body could trigger fibroid formation.
Igboeli who is the Managing Director of a private Fertility and IVF Centre, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
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“We realise that vitamin D deficiency is connected to fibroid formation.
“We have taken some measurements of vitamin D in patients and found out that a lot of black women who have fibroid also have vitamin D deficiency.
“So, you need calcium, vegetables, fruits; you have to change your diet.
“Women who have not got pregnant before are also prone to fibroid formation because the oestrogen and the progesterone that they make on monthly basis also stimulate the vessels of the womb to transform themselves into a tumorous fibroid step.“
The doctor said that women who consumed a lot of red meat, chicken, venison, and pork stood a higher risk of developing fibroids, whereas the intake of a lot of green vegetables could help protect women from developing the condition.
He said both young and middle-aged women could develop fibroid and that it could stop by the time the woman reached menopause.
“Some cultures believe some wicked persons cast fibroid as a cause on women or that witches are responsible for fibroid formation,’’ he said.
Igboeli, said that African women of child-bearing age were more prone to developing fibroids than their Caucasian, Asian or Latin counterparts.
According to him, fibroids can be hereditary.
“Fibroid is a benign tumor but it is found in young, middle-aged, and old people; in my own experience I have seen fibroid at the age of 18.
“And then the fibroid actual stops growing, for each decade of life thereafter you will see more fibroid in the people who are in their 30s and then you see even more fibroids in the people who are in their 40s.
“However when a women reaches menopause, she stops seeing her period, it appears as if the fibroid formation has deceased, but is still there.
“Sometimes when they grow after menopause, it might be a signal of a bad omen like cancer.“
Igboeli warned women against using herbal medicines only as solution for their fibroid problem, saying: “if you take too many herbal solutions, it will destroy the womb.
“It will destroy the fibroid quite alright, sometimes, but it affects the womb.“
Igboeli said fibroid could reoccur if the surgeon did not remove all of it including the small ones.
“It can reoccur when the surgeon only picks up the big fibroids and leaves the small ones that look like nuts inside the system.
“These ones will now grow to become big again, that is the biggest reoccurrence rate we have noted.
“Incomplete removal of the fibroid in the first setting by the surgeon who did it either because the operating room was not schedule to take a longer case which happens most of the time.
“Or the inexperience of the surgeon who takes the big lumps out leaving the small ones hoping that you will take in with the small one which happens a lot of times,“ he explained.
He said women who were overweight were also at a high risk of developing fibroids. (NAN)
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