Long Restack Note <more like a brief essay> but I feel that it’s important to share:

Firstly: I love that more information is starting to come out about uterine fibroids. The negative aspect is-as you’ll read in this post-that there is still a stigma when it comes to talking about them, getting an actual diagnosis, treatment options, etc. Please read this article regardless of your uterine status! Also, please restack this post by Anne Helen Petersen!

Secondly: I’ll briefly share a very brief bit of my own story:

Last year, on the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving I had to go to the E.R. (or E.D. as they’re apparently called now) for back pain due to getting sick earlier that day. I had a CAT scan and an ultrasound and learned that I had a cyst growing on my left ovary. “Fuck!” I thought, but also, no big deal-I’d been dealing with ovarian cysts on that specific ovary since my teens (it had been exactly 20 years since my two surgeries of removing a cyst from that ovary). I was scheduled an appointment with an OBGYN the following Monday (ironically my 35th birthday). I learned at that appointment that I had a fibroid growing in my uterus. Here’s a fun catch: I’d never heard of fibroids before that day (at least to my knowledge). Once he, the OBGYN, explained to me what symptoms a fibroid can cause, all the monthly pain and PMS I had felt and heavy periods since age 9 began to make a shitton of sense. I also had had a feeling since the age of 24 that I would not be having biological kiddos. I opted for a hysterectomy and had one a month and one day after my birthday.

I could tell the difference after the first day of the surgery and it felt amazing. I will say that I still deal with fatigue and mood swings on occassion, and depression, but my anxiety has somewhat gone down to the point where I’m able to actively work on my procrastination issue and NOT feel bad about it.

<If you’ve gotten this far down on here, thank you! There’s a tad bit more, and then done-I promise! Feel free to do a Huzzah once you reach the end>

I am planning to (in the future) do my own post about uterine fibroids, while detailing my own experience with my periods and unpack the baggage that came with it.

More or equally importantly, I’m also going to be doing an independent study (with guidance from one of my professors) on uterine fibroids this upcoming fall semester-looking at them from a cultural and biological anthropological perspective <or at least try to do justice in the biological part).

In the meantime, AGAIN, please please please read Anne’s post and restack the shit out of it! It’s got wonderful, personal accounts that reaches across gender and race spectrums. It’s also a great reminder that while humans discriminate against one another based on skin color, social/financial status, etc. nature does not! Medical diagnosis does not! Disease, viruses, epidemics/pandemics, plague does not!

Sorry about the long Restack essay, and thank you for reading! Carpe Diem!