I use to hear news about fibroid from afar until the abnormality happened to someone very close to me - my elder sister to be precise. She got married rather late as far as the societally acceptable age of marriage is concerned here in Nigeria. Thus, she conceived her first baby when she was in her late thirties. According to medical experts, the optimal age for childbearing for a woman lies between late twenties and early thirties. Beyond this range, several pregnancy risks or complications may set in.
Hence, when my sister conceived her first baby, many health-related issues surfaced. Eventually, she had the baby through Caesarian sectioning and even despite that, several health issues surfaced thereafter. She was experiencing non-menstrual related bleeding and a chronic back pain months after giving birth. She had to travel about 600 km from where she was based to mine in order to get better medical attention. It was here she was diagnosed of having fibroid in her womb. The diagnosis was initially presumptive, thus, an ultrasound scan was recommended for confirmation.
Apart from ultrasound scan of the uterus, a couple of other tests such as magnetic resonance imaging or hysteroscopy could have been used to confirm the presence of the abnormal growths. I guess the former was recommended because there are probably no machines of technical know-how to opt for either of the other two.
After diagnosing what the actual problem was, a session of counselling followed. She was made known of the options available for treatment of the disease and which is applicable to which depending on the stage of growth that the fibroid is. In her own case, surgery was excluded based on certain reasons:
- she just went through a delivery by Caesarian sectioning
- the fibroid cells are still in their early developmental stages and she is still producing oestrogen. Meaning that the fibroid may regrow even after removing them by surgery.
Another option that is surgery related would be to remove the uterus entirely. However, the fact that she has just a kid means that she may still have a use for the uterus. Thus, she was advised by the physician to try and conceive as much as early as possible before the fibrous cells make it difficult to conceive or cause complications during pregnancy.
Luckily for my sister, she got pregnant again after some months and delivered 9 months after by another Ceasarian sectioning. One would expect that this time, the fibroid cells would be removed along with the baby or even the uterus removed completely. Alas, this was not the case. The surgeon opined that this will make the caesarian sectioning more complicated and may lead to further complexities. He recommended that surgical procedures to remove the fibroid may only successfully carried out after she is fully healed from the effects of the Casearian sectioning.
The months that followed the delivery was hell for my sister. It was from one pain to another and at some points, walking uprightly became extremely difficult. She was managed with different medications for about 2 years after before a surgery was finally scheduled to remove the fibroid. Throught the waiting period, one would think that she was pregnant with a twin, at least.
During the period of waiting, several alternate options were recommended by concerned families and friends. Many of the herbal treatments recommended were rejected because I was not entirely sure of the efficacy. I managed to make some background research and what I found about them were not entirely convincing. One person even claimed that there is water that would be given to my sister to drink and she will push out the fibroid in a way similar to to how babies are vaginally delivered. I thought of all the suggestions as avenues to extort because they were not coming for cheap.
Fast forward to the day of the surgery and my sister was wheeled into the theatre and operated on for about to 5 hours. It was really an anxious moment for us the siblings but at the end of the day, the doctors declared the surgery a success. A period of recuperation followed and today, my sister is doing totally fine. Whether the fibroid s were removed or the uterus in its entirety remains unknown to me, and I do not bother to inquire. I am just more than glad to see her up and going again.
Final Words
Fibroids have no specific cause and it is an abnormality that can be experienced by women of fertility ages - as oestrogen and progesterone seem to be the main foods they consume for growth. The knowledge of the subject is something every woman should know.
If you have a fibroid-related experience, feel free to share below as this could benefit many.
Thank you all for reading.
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I do not have the experience, but researchers have shown a strong connection between high blood pressure and fibroids. Therefore, blood pressure should be taken seriously as it could be a pointer to many ailments.
Thanks for the contribution. Not sure my sister had a history of of high blood pressure. Will try to find out from her but I feel she would have mentioned it if she had it.
It's good to know that your sister is doing very well after treatment. i know some with fibroids and their experience scares me. I wish it's preventable
Thank you. It has no known cause, thus, cannot be prevented. The only correlation it seems to have is with age.
Thanks for sharing this very personal story about something I had no idea what it was before reading your blog. I was relieved to read your sister’s second delivery ended up as a success story, and I send her and your family my best wishes for the future! At the end, having your sister safe and happy is the most important thing!
I have an unrelated question.
Just out of curiosity, what is the acceptable age of marriage in Nigeria? I tend to believe that here in Europe, there is no such thing as an acceptable age of marriage anymore. For instance, I got married in my late twenties but I was not paying any real attention to the relationship between my age and wedding.
The acceptable age varies from tribe to tribe. Among the Yorubas, between the early and late twenties is considered ok for ladies while the early thirties is the limit for men. Beyond this range, your families and friends would start mounting pressure on you to get married.
For other tribes, it varies. Hausa people marry earlier (teenage years to early twenties) while Igbo people marry later (thirties for ladies and forties for men)
What is the most interesting is that you have quite a spread when you consider the full distributions (all tribes included). However, no one seems to care about the global situation, the tribal nature being dominant. This is something hard to imagine for a European like me, living in a very global society.
Indeed. There are over 400 tribes in Nigeria with over 250 languages. The diversity is huge.
As huge as your country (which is probably one of the reasons why there is no globality).
I do not have my own experience, but I do have someone else's experience. I had a student who had fibroids and her pregnancy process was pretty bad. She was on bed rest from the second trimester on. Then the c-section got complicated. That is a very delicate issue. She never knew she had it until the moment she found out she was pregnant.
Greetings, @gentleshaid.
I hope she survived the ordeal. Thanks for contributing to the subject. Fibroid is actually more common than we think.
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