Until recently it has been taught that fibroid tumors of the uterus were comparatively harmless to their bearers, a source of inconvenience for a few years on account of hemorrhage and possible pressure, but the menopause was a haven of rest toward which the sufferer might look for relief from the bleeding and weight of her burden. With the increased knowledge of pelvic disease came the unpleasant fact that not all fibromata are harmless after the change of life, that shrinkage does not always occur, but that on the contrary the tumor in some cases continues to grow, at times with an added impulse. Hemorrhage, too, does not invariably cease and, worse than all, retrograde changes are often at work transforming a benign growth into a menace to life.
So long as the tumor was regarded as harmless it was considered sufficient to tide the patient along with palliative measures,