James' World 2

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In December 2023, I had surgery to remove my fibroids. Fibroids are benign tumors that grow in the uterine wall. I’d had the growths for nearly a decade and, even though they were benign, they certainly added difficulty to my life.

Heavy periods had plagued me since I was a teenager, but they had gotten worse as I’d gotten older. They often lasted over a week, leaving me tired and anemic. Often my cramps were so bad they made me nauseated. I went through pads and tampons quickly, and often worried that sneezing or coughing, or laughing at the wrong time would lead to an embarrassing leak and a day with a jacket tied around my waist.

Fibroids grow over time and new ones form. Over the years, my doctor found another sizable fibroid, and the one they first found had grown so large that it pressed on my stomach, leading to almost daily heartburn. Four months later, I got approved for a laparoscopic myomectomy, a surgery to have the fibroids removed. I woke up in the hospital groggy from anesthesia and sore from the five incisions the surgeon made, but excited for my new fibroid-free life. I later found out that I had more than two fibroids: they removed 10 in total, and the largest had grown to 15 centimeters — about the size of a mango.

It’s a familiar story, but despite the answers and clarity my myomectomy gave me, it’s also a mysterious one for a lot of people with uteruses. As many as 77 percent of women will have fibroids in their lifetimes, but we don’t know what causes them. This also means that we don’t know what’s behind fibroids’ racial disparities. Black women are more likely to experience symptoms because of their fibroids, and they are two to three times more likely to have them reoccur once they’re removed. We’re also more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age.

Doctors have theories about why that is. Some researchers think genetics are a factor; others think it could be chemicals we come in contact with. And some think it could be a phenomenon known as weathering.

Weathering is a term coined by researcher Arline Geronimus. It was not without controversy when it was first introduced, but more of the medical community points to it as a factor for a number of health disparities for Black Americans.

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