can fibroids fail to show on ultrasound?

Body: 

I had ultrasounds recently and the doctor said there was nothing to worry about on them.
however, I feel intuitively that something is 'wrong' internally other than prolapses.
I know this isn't scientific but I value my intuition a lot :)

does anyone here know if fibroids can fail to show up on ultrasounds?
or has anyone had their doctor fail to tell them they had fibroids?

thanks :)

Hi Salt

I was reading about fibroids today. The statistics I saw said that a large percentage of women have them, but they obviously don't give too much trouble. They are after all, benign. If you had them the radiologist would have probably picked them up, if in fact they are easily detected on ultrasound. Maybe they are not? Is that the reason why you had the ultrasound?

They must note them- even if your doctor thinks they are no big deal, it will be in the radiology report :)

the ultrasound was to make sure there was not something like fibroids, adenomyosis, cancer etc causing the prolapses (because I am 35 and never had children - rare to have prolapses).

I am hoping to get up the nerve to see the actual report. here we don't normally get to see those things. the doctor sees it and then tells us what's on it. but unfortunately, some doctors make an 'executive decision' to not tell their patient if they think it's nothing to worry about.
my thought was that if I know what is going on, even if it's nothing to 'worry' about, then I can address it with natural methods and perhaps it could be another thing in my favour as far as helping reverse prolapses. :-)

Salt, I am so sorry to hear that you have such difficulty getting access to a report about *your* body, that you have paid for out of your pocket, or the taxpayer's pocket!

In my experience it is always important to get copies of these reports,
a in case you change doctors
b in case original scans etc are not transferred to new formats and become unreadable
c in the case of hard copy scans, ie x-ray film, that they get damaged or lost.

In my experience the doctor usually makes that executive decision on the basis that the patient might become unnecessarily alarmed, or start arguing with, or challenging the doctor's opinion, which is a waste of everybody's time. I think it is about paternalism and the power dynamic in the doctor/patient relationship, or should I say the patient/doctor relationship.

Just ask him. The worst he can say is no. He is more likely to say that there is little point because you wouldn't understand him. That's not the point. The point is that it is about your body, and you are engaging him for service, not the other way around!

BTW, if he says no, and you have been nice when you asked him, you can probably resort to Freedom of Information Laws if you have them in your country. They don't like that. Most of them will respond to reasonable requests, as long as they don't think the information will be used against them. I don't understand the point of withholding information from a patient report.

End of rant!

Louise

:-)

hi Louise,

I'm in Canada.
the land of the terminally polite, never want to ruffle anyone's feathers people!

I wholeheartedly agree with all of your rant!
I'm short on time just now but thank you so much for your reply. it boosted me up and helped me feel like I have a reason to ask for a copy (reason a feels easiest).

thanks!
:-)