Suffering From Fibroids in Silence?
Fibroids, benign tumors found in the wall of a woman’s uterus, can grow as a single tumor or as a cluster. Though many fibroids don’t have symptoms, women who do experience symptoms may have heavy bleeding, pain during sex, iron deficiency and complications during pregnancy and labor.
Black women are three times more likely to have fibroids than their white peers. They also are more likely to be diagnosed with the growths at an earlier age, to have larger fibroids that grow quickly and to experience symptoms that significantly affect the quality of life, including some so severe they cause women to miss work.
Expectations for Women by Age 50
By age 50, nearly two-thirds of women experience uterine fibroids, noncancerous tumors that grow in the uterus and range from pea to football sized and even larger. While some women with fibroids don’t have symptoms, others have significant pain, anemia, bleeding, increased urinary frequency, fertility problems and pregnancy complications.
And they disproportionately impact women of color. Black women are diagnosed with fibroids roughly three times as frequently as white women, develop them earlier in life and tend to experience larger and more numerous fibroids that cause more severe symptoms.
Nearly a quarter of Black women between 18 and 30 have fibroids compared to about 6 percent of white women, according to some national estimates. By age 35, that number increases to 60 percent. Black women are also two to three times more likely to have recurring fibroids or suffer from complications.
