Research still cannot pinpoint why Black women are more susceptible to fibroids, but many Black patients are questioning why they're being steered so quickly to more invasive treatments when options are available.
Women's health advocate Tanya Leake, photographed at her home on March 1, 2022. Leake founded numerous initiatives to help raise awareness about uterine fibroids after experiencing them herself.
Many women with fibroids never notice anything amiss, but approximately 25% to 50% struggle with heavy menstrual bleeding, frequent urination, and pain, which can lead to depression, reproductive health issues, and lower work productivity. Omari's friends explained that there are an array of possible treatments, including medications and myomectomy, a surgery that removes fibroids and preserves the uterus.
Dr. Octavia Cannon, past president of the American College of Osteopathic OBGYNs, specializes in treating uterine fibroids with support for those who do not want to undergo a hysterectomy."Some people want to keep the parts that God gave them," she says. "All the doctor has to say is that you have tumors, and immediately, if you don't know, you're going to think it's cancer," Cannon says. That misunderstanding makes women more likely to agree to a hysterectomy, whether they've had children or not, she adds.
There's a tendency among doctors to become comfortable with a familiar treatment, and then fall back on that, rather than consider what makes the most sense given the circumstances, she says. Tanika Grey Valbrun photographed on November 13, 2021. Valbrun founded The White Dress Project, a nonprofit organization focused on education, advocacy and support for women with uterine fibroids after her own medical struggle. The impacts of these decisions shape the path of women's lives, says Cannon. She recalls crying alongside a Black patient who had felt she had no choice when a doctor surgically removed her uterus decades earlier.
"We need our mothers, our grandmother to talk about this," she says."Generational storytelling is so important.". That's when she began researching medical specialists around Atlanta, looking for a doctor who would listen to her worries and hopes around preserving her uterus. A series of appointments with four different providers only led to disappointment – they all advised her to get a hysterectomy and one doctor never followed up after receiving her MRI results.
Rozelle Watson, 72, like many participants, found Leake through her online presence and social network after experiencing pain in her pelvic area. Watson's gynecologist diagnosed her with a calcified one-centimeter fibroid last year. At the outset of her treatment, she worried about doctors viewing her body"as a car."
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