The hidden pain of fibroids

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Oscar winning film star Lupita Nyong'o revealed on Instagram her decade long struggle with uterine fibroids it attracted almost a million likes. The post has sparked a global debate about a health problem that affects millions of women around the world but is rarely talked about. Fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in the uterus, the medical term for a woman’s womb. Symptoms can be severe and include heavy menstrual bleeding, painful periods and stomach pain. Black and Asian women are more likely to be affected, and we bring together three women who share their experiences of living with the condition. “A woman sitting across from you at work who’s smiling and having a conversation may be dying inside,” Sateria tells us. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm at Kriferuk. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. This time in BBC OS
0:13.3	conversations, we bring together people to share their experiences of a medical condition that affects
0:19.1	millions of women around the world, but until it
0:22.3	was highlighted by a Hollywood star, has rarely been talked about. Almost a million people have now
0:28.8	liked a candid post shared by actress Lipita Nyongo. LaPita wrote that in 2014, the same year as
0:35.2	her Oscar win for 12 years a slave, she discovered she had uterine fibroids.
0:40.2	This is where non-cancerous growths develop in the uterus, which is the medical term for
0:45.1	a woman's womb. Symptoms can be severe and include heavy menstrual bleeding, painful periods
0:51.0	and stomach pain. Black and Asian women are more likely to be affected,
0:55.9	and in a moment we'll hear from three women who share their experiences of living with the condition.
1:01.2	Treatment options for fibroids are limited. Many women are advised to have surgery to remove their
1:06.3	uterus, known as a hysterectomy, and that means they'll no longer be able to have children.
1:11.3	And we bring together three women to discuss the stigma they've experienced as a result.
1:16.0	When I first told people that I had to have this done, they said,
1:20.1	Oh, won't it make you feel less of a woman?
1:27.3	Lipita said she hoped that sharing her experiences would resonate with anyone who's ever felt dismissed, confused or alone.
1:35.0	In fact, when we posted about it on the BBC World Service Facebook account, dozens of women shared their own stories of fibroids and their interactions with the medical profession, often far from positive.
1:46.9	So let's hear from our first guest who spoke to my colleague Mark Lowen during our daily live OS program.
1:53.2	Aperva is in Mumbai, India, Don is in Berkshire in the UK, and Citeria is in Maryland in the US.
2:00.1	As you'll hear later in the conversation, she got to meet
2:02.6	LaPita at a recent event. When I was 26, I was diagnosed with fibroids and immediately told to have
2:09.5	a hysterectomy and I thought that that was very odd considering my young age and the fact that I
	...

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