Table 1.

Summary table for uterine fibroids.

Etiology	Unknown
Incidence	>60% over the age of 45 years
Age predilection	>30 years
Risk factors	Age, black race, early age at menarche, familial predisposition, overweight, polycystic ovary syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, nulliparity
Symptoms	Menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea, anemia, pelvic pressure or pain, urinary symptoms, constipation, backache or leg pains, dyspareunia, infertility, or miscarriage
Treatment	Treatment is required in up to 25% of women. Treatment options include medications, such as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (Gn-RH) agonists, hysterectomy, myomectomy, myolysis, uterine artery embolization, MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery (MRgFUS)
Prognosis	Benign tumor, excellent prognosis. In general, they begin to shrink after menopause, and they can grow quickly during pregnancy. They may also bleed into themselves, degenerate, become cystic, calcify, or undergo sarcomatous degeneration (<1% of cases)
Findings on MR imaging	Well-defined uterine mass with uniformly low signal intensity as compared to the myometrium on T2-w images and iso-hypointense to the myometrium on T1-w images that enhances homogeneously when gadolinium is administered intravenously. Degenerated fibroids show complex appearance with high or heterogeneous signal on T2-w and postcontrast images