A doctor recently had to weigh in on an anatomical issue after some well-meant (but inaccurate) fitness advice was shared on Twitter .
The confusion arose when one woman tweeted: “brooooo I’ve just learnt that slight bump at the bottom of girls stomach is our literal uterus??
“I feel like this should be taught more in school bc I literally almost killed myself trying to get rid of my f*****g UTERUS??? [sic]”.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical director of Patient.info was able to shed some light on what that “bump” actually is: “Unless you’re pregnant or have a condition called fibroids, which are non-cancerous growths in the muscle lining your womb, you can’t feel your uterus in your tummy.
“It’s usually only 3-4 inches long and is tucked away inside your pelvis, behind your pelvic bone.
“When you get pregnant, the womb grows enough to be felt above your pelvic bone by the time you’re about 12 weeks’ pregnant.
“Fibroids will cause the womb to enlarge, but they vary enormously in size.
“Many women have one or even several small fibroids and their womb is still not big enough to be felt above the pelvic bone at the bottom of your tummy.
“However, in extreme cases, fibroids can cause your womb to enlarge as much as the womb of a woman who is 6 months’ pregnant.”
Other social media users were a little less generous in their responses, with some of the kinder ones calling it “anatomically incorrect” – while others simply decided to poke fun.
“I’m not fat, just big uterused,” joked one person.
The woman who originally tweeted on the matter has since said: “I don’t mean our uterus is sitting right right there… I mean the pouch is caused by our uterus.”
