Fibroids

[ArabellaScott]

I had no idea this was such a big issue.

Apparently fibroids affect 80% of black women, and 70% of white women, by age 50.

'Mr Narendra Pisal, consultant gynaecologist at London Gynaecology, says more awareness needs to be raised.
"I don't think there is much awareness of fibroids, even in the African-Caribbean community," the expert, who has practised gynaecology in London for over 21 years, tells the Mirror.
"I see women and they are often shocked. It does become a taboo, kept a secret, it is a private thing for a lot of women, they won't talk about it.
"The more awareness we increase, the better it will be."
He has called for every woman at the age of 25 to have an ultrasound - which can pick up conditions like fibroids, Endometriosis, and polycystic ovaries.'

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/beverley-knights-battle-fibroids-affects-29542491?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

I had fibroids but no one realised until I had a hysterectomy and they found them there. My periods had been agony ever since they started. Fobbed off for decades. Completely agree more awareness is needed.

Women's reproductive health is shockingly underfunded and under researched- fobbed off with 'it's just part of being a woman' 😡

Given the waiting lists are months long for quite serious gynae issues at the moment, I’d love to know how every woman age 25 is going to get a scan.

I say this as a fibroid and endometriosis suffer (which is diagnosed by laparoscopy). I had to wait over 9 months for my first scan to confirm the fibroids the GP knew I had, I then had to wait 3 years for a laparoscopic investigation whilst they insisted I try medication, the the coil, then a pill, and then a further 2 years before I finally got a hysterectomy for the Endo they found during the laparoscopy.

If men had agonising cramps, flooding so bad they couldn’t leave the house for a week every month and were anaemic for several years there would be a lot more funding for gynae!

I had fibroids for years but they weren't diagnosed until I was 48, two years before my periods stopped. Only when I started gushing blood when not on my period did anyone listen to me. It was agony and the flooding was so hard to deal with but, like many women, I was just told 'It's your age, love'.

anaemic for several years

God yeah, I remember the cravings I used to get for steak the week before my period, I wanted it half raw. Once my periods stopped, the craving went away.

I had mine diagnosed by a scan after seeing my GP, got a consultants appointment quite quickly. He examined me and opened his diary to arrange the hysterectomy. This was the NHS but 23 years ago.

I didn't think endo could be diagnosed by u/s scan?

It took me 25 years to get a laparoscopy to confirm what I knew and I'd had lots of u/s scans for various things in the meantime so I knew I had fibroids and also ovarian cysts at different times.

A TV ultrasound picked up my ovarian endometrioma, but not the rest of the very extensive problem.

My fibroid almost certainly caused the late miscarriage of my baby at 20 weeks. Had it surgically removed but had to pay privately for a consultation and MRI scan. This was back in 2006 so I can't comment on how things are today but I absolutely felt dismissed and had to fight to get it investigated. Went on to have a healthy baby by CS but was told that it would be too risky to try again due to all the scar tissue, risk of haemorrhaging and the placenta becoming stuck to the scar tissue. Fibroids are really unpleasant.

Had fibroids for years. Was aenemic , in pain etc. But both my male gynos were great and in 2003 I had a laser ablation day surgery (Ireland). It was fantastic. I kept my uterus but the lining was scarred so no more painful periods nor aenemia.

Have fibroids. The mega size type. My sister has same and needs transfusions regularly. We're still told it's nothing serious. Just a woman thing 😳

I had several ultrasounds for ovarian cysts and my fibroid wasn't picked up, it was only when I had a CT scan for another issue that they showed up.

noprobbob, I'm really sorry.

An ultrasound scan during pregnancy picked up fibroids.

Yup. Massively outing but I had a huge one causing loads of pain whilst it was degenerating but kept getting fobbed off then I ended up having emergency surgery cos the f*cker ruptured and I was bleeding internally. Then it turned out to be cancer. My situation is insanely rare / unfortunate but another example of women's health / conditions not being taken seriously.

Another fibroids, cysts and endometriosis sufferer! was fobbed off for 12 years originally so from 10 until 22 I was just expected to shut up and get on with it.

The amount of hospital stays and operations over the years has been ridiculous! Mainly because no-one would do anything until something burst or caused me so much pain I'd arrive in an ambulance.

They cut through my bowel during one operation to treat the endometriosis and some fibroids then spent two days telling me that I needed to shut up as i was upsetting the other patients, there was nothing wrong with me and i just had a low threshold to pain.

I found out much later that I died on my way back into the operating room for the life saving second operation to remove the septic severed bits of bowel!

It took another good few years for me to get up the never to have another much needed operation and the first hospital refused to treat me as they were scared they'd fuck up again so they had to find a different hospital and surgeon who was prepared to operate.

He's absolutely fantastic and does regular scans now to monitor everything. But it took way to many decades of my life to get satisfactory health care.

If this was a male condition the care would be so much better.

I was in pain for years. Eventually offered an ultrasound where they found fibroids. Told "we don't treat fibroids any longer in Worcestershire", but they'll shrink when you got menopause. It seems they don't treat a lot of women's health issues any longer (or ever...)

Good god, Beetle. to you and to all women who've suffered because of this.

I can't believe how this seems to be dismissed!

💐to all . just been and read everyone's posts. Life is shit as a woman!

I have huge fibroids that caused serious issues in my first pregnancy. I was told by nurses that fibroids do not cause pain and I was being ridiculous/making it up to get extra pain relief.

I ended up in hospital for a week, then later the pain was so bad it masked the contractions so they refused to believe I was in labour. My DD almost died and both of us were very ill for months.

Over 3yrs later I still haven't had them removed as I moved to the next county and they aren't interested in following up like my previous hospital was. Luckily it didn't affect my second pregnancy much, but I'm starting to have more and more pain and bleeding on a regular basis.

Of course my expensive health insurance has written out anything to do with female specific health issues all because I have fibroids.

@ArabellaScott bizarrely that fuck up by an inattentive surgeon changed the entire trajectory of my life. It was my sliding doors moment as the choices I made in the days and months that followed were made purely because there are things I realised I needed to do now because there may be no tomorrow! I would thank him but I still hate his guts too much!

So many shocking stories here.
My problem fibroid was a pedunculate one that prolapsed through the cervix. But because of the ridiculous shortage of access to ultrasound scans they only realised this when they tried to do an ablation.
So stupid of the NHS to skimp on women’s health like this. If they had diagnosed and treated it in a timely manner they would have saved the cost of an emergency ambulance admission, months of gp appointments and drugs and an operation that was much more complicated and with longer recovery than it need have been.

This is horrible; how crappy women are treated and left to suffer.
It's not normal!
And there are great pills to help reabsorb the blood.Tranexamic acid! I had them in Ireland, they've been used safety in Scandinavia for over 20 years .
Laser ablation is quick and with a local anesthetic painless!! Why the feck aren't you getting this,!

From what I understand (fuck all, to be fair) the treatment methods depend on the type of fibroids.

Unfortunately I couldn't take Tranexamic acid.

I'm glad to hear you had success with your ablation. My ablation was done under general anaesthetic, took three hours and didn't work.

I think I'm cursed!!!

My fibroids mean I'm in significant pain for 3 weeks a month with pain from my knees to my belly button, I can't sleep on my front because it's like sleeping on a bowling ball and bleed so heavily I have to have blood transfusions because I keep getting so anaemic that it's required

The (male, obvs) gynaecologist told me 'it's just periods, most women manage fine with some ibuprofen and a hot water bottle without making such a fuss' and that losing weight will sort it out. I take 6 x 30/500 co-codamol a day plus 6 x mefenamic acid a day during my period to get my pain to a level where I don't faint/vomit (but it's still significant)

I lost 4 stone and I have been bleeding worse than ever.......