7 lessons from my journey with fibroids

7 lessons from my journey with fibroids

I will share somethings I learnt from my journey with fibroids. Declaimer: I only share my knowledge based on my experience and personal research. I am not a health practitioner, herbalist or spiritual healer. YAnd as all women are different, you always need to visit a gynecologist to better understand your particular case and options.

Lesson 1
A good diet goes a long way. Eat well, ill or not ill. A diet rich in organic fruit and veggies and clean water will protect you from many illnesses. In the case of fibroids, it will most likely help reduce your symptoms or their effects. Remember also that in general (and specific to fibroids) too much consumption of red meat, alcohol, caffeine, smoke and refined sugar is believed to promote bad health. Most recommend that tou just completely eliminate these from your diet. In my personal experience this proved true. I could measure the amount of pain to expect according to my diet that month.

That a vegan or vegetarian diet shrinks or avoids the development of fibroids is largely unproven. I know women who have been vegetarian all their lives but still developed fibroids. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Others still failed to control the growth of the fibroids. And yet every now and then you also meet women who claim to have been healed by such diets! 🤷🏽‍♀️ Hameno!

Also consider that if fibroids are hereditary, your diet choice is likely not to have much positive effect except perhaps the reduction of your symptoms and their effects.

Lesson 2
There is a defeating silence when it comes to fibroids, as if they only affect people from other continents not ours. But so many Zimbabwean women are suffering from fibroids and sadly it’s now considered normal; with a myomectomy or hysterectomy being considered the most effective, supported and ‘normal’ remedies. Whatever is causing it (discussion for another day), the increase in fibroid cases sometimes seems pandemic. Unfortunately no matter how expensive surgical (and other) remedies may be, no one is coming to save you! It’s entirely up to us to defend and look after the wombs that populate this earth.

My main point anywho was that all these other nonconvenstional medical options (such as herbs) are not well researched and therefore have no scientific backing. It’s unfortunate we don’t invest in African researches that much as yet. It’s also most unfortunate that most medical procedures cost an arm and a leg. So I understand women whose only options are herbs and spiritual interventions. So if you choose to take this route, my experience with herbs was that:

it’s going to be highly dependent on your personal monitoring and your personal research.

Most, if not all these herbs are very bitter and must be taken religiously, sometimes 3 times per day. Bitter zvekurutsa chaizvo!
coupled with a good diet, they help (especially with pain, bloating and other such symptoms).
There are a lot of fake herbalists and traditional healers out there. People are looking for money, so be VERY VERY careful not to waste your much-needed time and hard-earned money.
Not everyone has the time for trail and error with herbs. When fibroids are too big and/or too many, it might be too late to try herbs for their size control. Herbs require time, a lot of time. Most of them will start showing results 3-6 months later (depending on the size of the fibroids, your diet and so forth) So PLEASE, make sure you get professionally checked by a gynecologist to see the state of your fibroids. Unfortunately there is no other way for you to be sure. You have to be scanned professionally for you to know the number of your fibroids, size, location and effects in relation to other organs. This will tell you if you can afford to try alternative medicines.
There is no definite, indisputable result! Zvinongosiyana siyana.

Lesson 3
There is now UFE (Uterine Fibroid Embolisation) available in Zimbabwe too. It’s a minimally invasive procedure that can fix a fibroid problem without open myomectomy. Please google this as another option.

Lesson 4
Effects of ignoring fibroids for too long:
Generally, it’s said that fibroids don’t kill; fibroids are non-cancerous and so forth, but rest assured, their effects, when totally ignored may certainly lead to death. Ignoring them until they become extremely big might lead to other health complications that could have easily been avoided and this is largely dependent on their size, location and how many they are. Eg, if one of your biggest fibroids is pressing against your urethra, this could very easily end up affecting your kidney(s) and possibly leading to diseases like ….. So please note:

If fibroids are way too big, sometimes the only remaining option will be to remove the entire uterus/womb (hysterectomy). If you are still in child-bearing ages and wanted to have (more) children this could be detrimental to your plans. And even if you aren’t young anymore, some women just want to keep their wombs. Wombs serve more purposes than just having babies.

Fibroids are known to feed on your blood too. So they often lead to anemia. Left for too long, they can lead to extreme and regular weakness, fatigue, brain fog and general under-performance in different aspects of life, the worst being shortness of breath and collapsing. Extreme levels of this condition can lead to worse health problems beyond fibroids.

One of the worst parts of fibroids is getting used to living with them, getting used to the pain and getting used to finding solutions to quieten down the pain. Remember kunyararidza musoro without finding out chakonzera musoro is no problem solved. And no one should live in constant pain. It diminishes the quality of your life. Many of us suffering from fibroids don’t really realize the extent of decay of quality of life until the day the fibroids are removed. Suddenly you réalise you weren’t leading a normal life. Periods that last 5/6/7 days aren’t normal! Changing pads within an hour or two isn’t normal! Feeling sleepy all the time isn’t normal! Being very forgetful isn’t normal! Etc

Lesson 5
STRESS!

Too much stress and/or failure to handle stress positively is a démon on its own, especially for women. Our wombs are collectors of our emotions. Men: That’s why it’s important to constantly show your woman love! Murandakadzi, better unzi unotaurisa pane kugaro dumbirwa! Bottling up emotions will breed disease, and fibroids are a common example. Each day learn to deal with your emotions in a mature and positive way. Other things I know to help are:

• Usanorara wakadumbirwa, gara warireva ririkukuremera. Zvirinani kuve mafirakureva. Don’t allow anyone to abuse you (especially emotionally). Also don’t be the abuser! Don’t be toxic to others, it always comes back to you.

• Journal your thoughts and emotions. Kupedzera shungu pabepa kunobatsirawo zvekare. Kunopodza marwadzo. It helps arrange thoughts and identify hidden emotions too.

• Exercise! Exercise is a free stress-reliever, ill or not. It helps manage disease and it also prevents disease. Musangotarisa ana baba vachienda ku gym 😂 Wear something nice and go too, or simply exercise in your house, using just your body as I do.

• Take time to relax. You don’t have to drink alcohol and go to bars to relax. Just look for stuff you like doing and do it every now and then kumbozorodza pfungwa. Make Time for a walk nje, make time to read novels, make time to learn something new, a language, how to give a massage, new cooking recipes, biking, swimming, basic accounting, a music instrument, learn about new flowers etc etc

Lesson 6
I learnt that spiritually (believe it or not, it’s what I heard) fibroids are not hood at all. They bring bad luck and tie in shuckles your creativity. In fact, to start with, spiritually they are believed to be caused by a failure to express one creativity. When that is bottled up and never allowed to flourish, it manifests internally in other tangible forms. 🤷🏽‍♀️
Spiritually fibroids are also past trauma never dealt with.

And in our culture, fibroids are the womb doing what it knows best, creating and maturing matter! 😂

Lesson 7
Lastly, men, please develop an interest in understanding fibroids, scientifically, financially and any other …cally, but most importantly emotionally. They do a hard number on women! And the worst thing for a woman is to suffer from them and have no support from your other half. This is not a women-alone problem! Wombs are the soil we need to have plants to feed earth.