Lupita Nyong’o on living with uterine fibroids: here’s what you need to know
The actress shared her experience of fibroids “the largest the size of an orange”
Lupita Nyong’o is advocating for better uterine fibroid treatments and awareness after revealing she is currently living with over 50 of them, 12 years after having surgery to remove 30 growths.
To mark her 43rd birthday, Lupita shared the latest on her health condition. “Over the course of my lifetime, I have carried 77 uterine fibroids: 25 surgically removed, and more than 50 still growing inside me today - the largest the size of an orange,” she said. “In this image, I’m holding 77 fruits, as a symbol for each fibroid, to make visible the weight that I, and millions of women like me, carry every day.”
“Expect to be in pain every month”
“When you have fibroids, doctors usually use fruit to explain to you what size your fibroids are. So your fibroid could be the size of a grape,” Lupita’s said. “My biggest fibroid is the size of an orange.”
“This is not a rare story. It is just a rarely told one,” she explained. “I have endured seasons of constant pain, losing dangerous amounts of blood each month, and suffering in silence.”
Before her fibroids were discovered, Lupita, regularly experienced pelvic pain and fatigue. Once her period started, she was told to “expect to be in pain every month”.
“So, when I was experiencing the heavy bleeding, it didn’t sound an alarm. The clotting was not anything remarkable to me. I didn’t understand my body. I didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t know to be worried,” she said.
Following her 2014 Oscar win for 12 Years a Slave, Lupita was diagnosed with fibroids and had a myomectomy, surgery to remove them for the first time. Doctors extracted 30 growths.
“I asked my doctor if I could do anything to prevent them from recurring,” Lupita has explained. “She said: ‘You can’t. It’s only a matter of time until they grow again’.”
Twelve years later, they have grown again and Lupita’s debating whether to undergo the procedure again.
“So now, 12 years later, I have fibroids again,” Lupita revealed recently. “I have double the amount of fibroids and I’m still being offered the same options: surgery or living with the pain. I haven’t yet chosen the surgery. I’m not ready to make that decision. It’s quite invasive, and a lot of women just get a hysterectomy [to remove the uterus].”
Ditching women’s health shame
In fact, fibroids are incredibly common.
“Eight out of 10 Black women and 7 out of 10 white women will experience fibroids,” Lupita says. “Yet we speak so little of them. When we reach puberty, we’re taught that periods mean pain, and that pain is simply part of being a woman. I started talking about my experience privately, and I realised so many women are going through this.”
“I felt shame,” Lupita shared recently. “What did I do to cause them? And then I felt very alone and quite scared for my reproductive health.”
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By sharing her experience, Lupita hopes to change the shame held by so many women and encourage them to seek the support and treatment they deserve.
What you need to know about uterine fibroids
Fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the womb (uterus). The growths are made up of muscle and fibrous tissue, and vary in size. They’re sometimes known as uterine myomas or leiomyomas. They are common with 2 in 3 women developing at least one fibroid at some point in their life, most often in women aged 30 to 50.
The exact cause of fibroids is unknown, but they have been linked to the hormone oestrogen, produced by the ovaries. Fibroids usually develop during a woman’s reproductive years (16 to 50) when oestrogen levels are at their highest. They tend to shrink when oestrogen levels are low, such as after menopause.
Many women are unaware they have fibroids because they do not have any symptoms.
Around 1 in 3 women do have symptoms and may experience:
heavy periods or painful periods
abdominal pain
lower back pain
a frequent need to urinate
constipation
pain or discomfort during sex
In rare cases, further complications caused by fibroids can affect pregnancy or cause infertility.
Fibroids can grow anywhere in the womb and vary in size considerably, from the size of a pea to the size of a melon.
If you do have symptoms caused by fibroids, medicine to help relieve the symptoms will usually be recommended first. There are also medications available to help shrink fibroids. If these prove ineffective, surgery may be recommended.
