Lower Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) Evaluation in Women With Uterine Leiomyomata

1. Uterine fibroids Uterine leiomyomas or fibroids are one of the most common conditions affecting women of reproductive age. They account for approximately a third of all hysterectomies performed. Symptoms often attributed to uterine leiomyomas include excessive menstrual bleeding, dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, and so called "bulk symptoms," or symptoms related to pressure on adjacent organs such as ureteral obstruction, urinary frequency and urgency, rectal pressure, pelvic pressure and increasing abdominal girth. Current treatment for symptomatic uterine fibroids includes hysterectomy, myomectomy and uterine fibroid embolization. 2. Lower urinary tract symptoms Although, urinary symptoms like frequency, urgency, incontinence, and voiding dysfunction are often attributed to fibroids, the relationship between fibroids and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) has been poorly studied. The public health burden of fibroids has been studied before and after radical hysterectomy, supracervical hysterectomy, and total abdominal hysterectomy.(1-3) What is missing in the literature is a comparison of traditional and non-traditional surgical fibroid techniques in a prospective fashion. Moreover, there are no studies evaluating the relationship between anatomic factors like uterine size or fibroid number or location and the presence of LUTS.