Nationwide — Award-winning Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o has revealed that she has over 50 fibroids in her uterus, inflicting ache, heavy bleeding, and different well being challenges. She first found them years in the past and now works to lift consciousness and assist analysis for higher therapies.
Nyong’o initially thought her signs had been regular. She skilled fatigue, pelvic ache, and heavy intervals for years with out realizing something was fallacious. “I didn’t perceive my physique. I didn’t know what was happening,” she instructed TODAY.com.
Her routine check-up modified every thing. An ultrasound revealed about 30 fibroids in her uterus. Medical doctors supplied her two choices — to reside with the ache or have surgical procedure. Nyong’o selected a myomectomy to take away them.
Twelve years later, the fibroids have returned and this time greater than 50. Regardless of the surgical procedure, her signs got here again, leaving her annoyed and trying to find options. “They’re going haywire in my physique, and no one helps. No person is aware of what to do to mitigate them,” she mentioned.
To develop therapy choices, Nyong’o partnered with the Basis for Ladies’s Well being. Collectively, they launched the #MakeFibroidsCount marketing campaign, which funds analysis on non-invasive therapies and encourages individuals with fibroids to share their tales.
Fibroids have an effect on 40% to 80% of individuals with uteruses and affect Black girls greater than others. Their causes stay unclear, and surgical procedure doesn’t assure they gained’t return. Nyong’o hopes her openness offers others the steerage and assist she initially lacked.
She additionally realized how frequent fibroids are amongst family and friends. Many had handled them quietly, present process myomectomies and even hysterectomies. By talking out, Nyong’o connects with others going through related struggles and empowers girls to advocate for higher therapy and neighborhood assist.
“I’ve been rewarded a lot by with the ability to faucet into and be a part of forces and join arms with different girls who’ve been preventing this battle for a very long time now,” Nyong’o mentioned.
