This episode is for both women and men. Women - for obvious reasons. For the fellas, so that you can share this intel with your wife, girlfriend, sister, mother, aunt, grandmother, your friends.
Women with uterine fibroids (UF) experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and self-directed violence, especially those with pain or who have had a hysterectomy, according to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. In many women, fibroids place a heavy toll on a woman's emotional well-being and can lead to body-issue anxieties, lower self-esteem and worries about relationships and sexuality.
Uterine fibroids are a common gynecologic condition among women and the primary reason for hysterectomy for US women. Over their lifetime, about 80 percent of black women and 70 percent of white women will develop fibroids. Nearly a quarter of Black women between 18 and 30 have fibroids compared to about 6% of white women, according to some national estimates. By age 35, that number increases to 60%. Black women are also two to three times more likely to have recurring fibroids or suffer from complications.
This is the first of many conversations on the couch with Dr. O. Lawrence Stitt, a gynecological surgeon in Maryland. Please join us on the couch as he speaks in basic terms about uterine fibroids which affects a large percentage of black and white women but are more debilitating for black women and cause more hospitalizations for them as well. ARE YOU READY TO TAKE THE COUCH?
