R&B Songstress Asiahn Opens Up About Her Fibroids Diagnosis: “Why Don’t Doctors Listen To Us?”

#Socialites Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Asiahn is shedding light about her Fibroids diagnosis and why doctors aren’t listening! Make sure you check out her powerful story and leave a comment below!

A frustrating question I find myself asking far too often. Why don’t doctors listen to Black women?

Is there some unknown knowledge shared between non black care providers that says black women complain about things that don’t exist? Are my cries and truths about my pain something I created in my mind just to be extra today? NO.

Have you even heard about the character of black women? Not the fake news that says we’re angry all the time, nah we be angry but for real reasons that deserve our frustration. But who we really are. We are strong, kind, loving, protectors, resilient, hard working, and take on the world with grace even on our worst days.

So when we’re finally broken down, vulnerable, reaching out to our health care providers, and crying in a cold doctors office about how bad our cycles are, how we can’t move, can’t eat, can’t function when our monthly comes because we believe something is wrong, you won’t listen?

Despite my hesitation that comes mostly from shame or fear, I’ve decided to share my ongoing fibroid story.

In light of it being the end of Fibroid Awareness month, I don’t see much awareness. I never have actually which is primarily the problem.

Every time my album dropped (what I call my cycle because period is horrendous and monthly sounds like I’m old) I would get crippling and excruciating back, leg, and stomach cramps. Severe nausea, low energy, extreme bloating for over a week. I would gain anywhere from 7-10 pounds per cycle.

I complained of this years ago and the doctor just wrote it off as endometriosis. They could put me on birth control to help with the severe bleeding, prescribe some pain meds but that was about it.

So I left the office just feeling like “welp I have really bad cycles I just have to deal with it” so I did. For years and it just kept getting worse. Every time I complained about it to doctors I got the same story. “We’re doing all we can, would you like to try a different birth control?” None of which helped, most made me feel extremely unstable emotionally, or made me feel even worse than I already did.

Fast forward to end of 2018 top of 2019. I’d had enough! Music was doing amazing, I knew I’d be touring most of the year and there was NO WAY I could tour with the album drops I be having. How could I possible sing to my hearts content when it feels like my insides are being shredded apart? (Graphic? Yes, but honest)

I complained to my nurse practitioner, because these days it’s harder and harder to see my actual doctor who I didn’t know at this time left the practice. We’ll call the nurse LC. LC’s face Is the only one I recognize at the entire facility now. I requested that we get a new ultrasound because I felt something was off. The ones she had from 2018 indicated that I had a small mass and two fibroids. (Whew the cancer scare of 2018, but that’s a story for another day).

She asked how I felt about the IUD (Intrauterine Device- basically a small plastic T shaped device inside your uterus that releases progesterone to help with heavy bleeding but also used as a contraceptive).

Something in my gut told me “nah sis, don’t get it”. So I did my googles and saw that a lot of women with fibroids had issues with the IUD, but some had none so I was torn. I Put her off for months. Every time I went in to see her which was often for yearly biopsy’s of the tumor and testing my iron every few months which continued to drop she would ask. I kept declining.

One visit she mentioned the doctor requested that I get familiar with the thought of having a hysterectomy. A HYSTERECTOMY?!? AT MY AGE? NO Children? With ALL this medical advancement, somehow we had boiled down to, get the IUD for some relief that doesn’t actually get rid of the tumor or the two fibroids I supposedly had, or a Hysterectomy?! You gotta be kidding me.

LC stuck with those options for a while also occasionally asking if I wanted yet another birth control all of which I had tried by now. But one visit was different. She finally brought up some other possible surgeries outside of a Hysterectomy. Endometrial Ablation and a mymoectomy. The first would leave me infertile and that was an absoluteno no so I started to gather information on myomectomy. LC shared because of my desire to carry my own children,my best option would be a myomectomy. However I would have to try and conceive 6 months after surgery because of the risk of the fibroids growing back and scar tissue both of which could make me infertile or at very high risk of multiple miscarriages.

I cried a bit at the options. I wasn’t ready to have a child yet! Getting the surgery that could possibly give me any relief would drastically speed up my life’s timeline. I just dropped an album, I have goals I’m trying to reach, having a baby this soon wasn’t in my plans.

LC asked when would I be ready to have a child. “Maybe two years” I replied as I swallowed back tears realizing that with the best option came many life changes. She told me the IUD could give me some time and relief until I’m ready. Still not ok with the IUD I stuck by my “No”. Until one evening, maybe a month before I was suppose tostart touring I found myself stuck on the floor, sweating profusely, crying In the fetal position unable to grasp why this is my life? How can I continue to live this way? How had I done it so long? And Why can no one help me? Every month taking a million pain killers that could ruin my liver or kidney, suffering in agony with no recourse. Was anyone listening at all?

That was is it. “I have to tour, I have to film, I can’t let myself, team, or my fans down… I can’t get surgery right now, I’m not ready to have a baby.” My internal struggles had reached an all time high. I decided to try out the IUD which ended up being the worse decision I ever made.

After one very painful failed attempt to insert the IUD. I finally got it… It was hell the first 5 days. Worse than the cycles I experienced normally but I held out hoping for a brighter day that eventually came. Came for two months and went because my body expelled the IUD. They told me of the scary possibilities of my body expelling the IUD or it possibly rupturing my uterus or cervix because of the fibroids, but at this point it was all I had.

Let’s rewind to how I found out my IUD was expelling. I got into a car accident and went to the chiropractor for treatment. I got Xrays and it showed my IUD was side ways. Not at all where it should’ve been. Which would explain the slight pains I was having here and there and the bleeding that hadn’t stopped. The pain was way easier to deal with than my normal cycle to so I just thought it was normal. It was bearable.

I went to see LC again out of concern, I showed her the X-ray, she said it was fine. As along as it was still in my uterus I was good to go…. Bad idea. I found myself in excruciating pain yet again, so bad I rushed to OBGYN triage where they confirmed it had probably been expelling the entire time. The doctor I saw this time seemed to be very concerned and apologetic of my previous treatment. But thought it best to remove and replace the IUD with another. She also added in the other possible surgeries I mentioned before. Hysterectomy always being the more prominent option. How could I decide so easily? So quickly? Yes I had to lay there and make an instant decision about something I was unsure about from the get go.

Because of my two months of bearable pain I stupidly got another IUD. It was better than a hysterectomy and maybe this one was a fluke. Another painful insertion, and in less than a month another painful expulsion. By this time I had constantly been bleeding for months. My hemoglobin was down to a 7 which meant any lower I’d need a blood transfusion.

I kept crying and saying to the doctor “Something isn’t right, please give me another ultra sound” This time they decided okay she not gonna stop unless we give her one so let’s set it up.

We were mid quarantine so they had to schedule it months out because it wasn’t “EMERGENT”. Had I not had to rush back for a third visit to triage I’d still be waiting for my ultrasound appointment.

My blood clots were the size of tangerines and I found myself in bed most days crying on a heating pad for months. I hid it from my friends, family, and team.

I had to go back to triage. I was in so much pain and loosing so much blood I thought I was going to die. They put me on a pill version of progesterone to help stop the bleeding because at this point I had spent the last year in extreme anemia. I was literally hemorrhaging and still wasn’t considered “EMERGENT” and I Still hadn’t had a new ultra sound.

That day I got the head surgeon and a resident. The resident came in and told me that I need to get a surgery and they needed to give me a higher dose of progesterone to stop the bleeding. He asked the same questions the nurse did and left.

While waiting I heard two men talking about my case. The resident filled the head surgeon in and I heard the surgeon ask the resident a question. I couldn’t make out what it was but the residents response was no. He got a little angry with the resident and said “You have to ask these questions. I’ll speak with her myself”. Then enters a slender Asian man who came in yet again apologetic for my previous care. He said “I want to ask you a few further questions, what is your current plan/timeline? What do you want? If treatment could go your way what would that be?” He was the first doctor in all my years to ask me those questions.

I cried and answered and told him I don’t want a hysterectomy. He looked me in the eyes and said “Ok Miss Bryant, I’m telling you right now that we’re taking hysterectomy off the table, it shouldn’t be a first option. You’re too young and have plans to have a child NO ONE should keep trying to convince you of that option” I cried even harder because finally it felt like someone could hear me. Someone was listening to what I want.

He explained my new treatment plan in further detail and took the time to answer any of my questions. He scheduled me for an ultra sound immediately because he thought it was preposterous that anyone was discussing surgery options with me based on two almost three year old scans.

The ultra sound showed that my tumor and fibroids had grown and multiplied. Three were the size of oranges and the other varied from plum to grape. My heart sank. How many times did I stand up for myself and no one bat an eyelash. How many times did I say something is wrong and no one try to research further. Parts of me thought if I were white would they have taken my qualms more seriously? Would I be sitting here having to face these decisions. Surgery is now my ONLY options.

“Studies show that African-American women suffer fibroids 2 to 3 times more than white women,” says McLeod OB/GYN Dr. Monica Ploetzke. “We also know that Black women tend to experience fibroids at a younger age and often more severely than their white counterparts.”

25% of African-American women will suffer from fibroids by the age of 25 and 80% will have them by age 50. So with all these studies and still no answers I ask again.

Why don’t you listen to us? Until it’s too late and we’re facing surgery, infertility, or death. Why as African American women are we not outraged, saying more, doing more?

I was ashamed that maybe something I did created these, depressed at the thought of infertility, and saddened that my word just wasn’t good enough to be taken seriously. SoI lay here In bed, in pain frustrated and I started to write.

As it stands I’ll have a myomectomy soon. Although the last doctor was caring, all the previous doctors are all on his team and everyone has their own opinions of my treatment. As a patient that is extremely unsettling and it shouldn’t have taken this long to get to a finalized treatment plan to begin with. So my search for an amazing OBGYN and surgeon is still ongoing.

I wanted you to know my story so you don’t have to go through the same things I did. I wanted you to know it’s ok to talk about this. We NEED to talk about this. I also want to encourage you to get checked ladies. I don’t want you to suffer In silence anymore. Yes, we’re strong! Yes, we’re resilient! But we don’t have to go through this alone. We have to proactive about fibroids when we’re young and as we age.

Fight for yourself because no one else will. Listen to your gut! We know when something’s wrong. If a doctor doesn’t believe you, find a new doctor. It’s time fibroids became a regular conversation piece amongst girlfriends, daughters, and mothers.

Sources: McLeod Health, National Institutes of Health