Jill Martin.Photo: Tyler Essary/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
Jill Martinspentyears in pain from the fibroidsgrowing in her uterus, but was able to brush it off. The noncancerous but abnormal tumors that can pop up in the uterus had been there since at least 2019 and theTodayshow lifestyle contributorcontinued to go about her life because she felt like they were “manageable.”
But this year, Martin hit a breaking point.
And recently, Martin said, the pain had become “unbearable.”
“If you could have seen me on Zoom calls or inToday’s greenroom between segments in recent months, you would know I was always looking for a place to plug in a heating pad. I was suffering all the time,” she said in an accompanying essay.
“One of [the fibroids] had grown to the size of a grapefruit, and was sitting on my uterus. It hurt to have intercourse, and I was constantly having to use the restroom because of all the pressure.”
Martin said that she had avoided addressing her fibroids in part because she thought her only option was getting major surgery —a hysterectomy.
“After talking with other women who suffer from fibroids, I realized I’m not alone — many of them thought that a major surgery to remove their uterus was their only real solution, too,” she wrote. “But there are other options. And when you are in pain, more often than not, it is time to do something.”
Martin learned that she could get a minimally invasive procedure called uterine fibroid embolization, wherethe fibroids aren’t removed, but instead have their blood flow cut off. Over time, they decrease in size and hopefully go away.
In February, Martin had the procedure done and found that she had far more than the two large fibroids and a few other smaller ones that doctors initially thought — she had 18 in total. It will be another six months before Martin knowsif the procedure was successful, but she’s “already on the mend.”
“I already see my stomach getting flatter. I’m still in pain, but it’s good pain, because I know I am healing. Dr. [Marc] Schiffman said my body is slowly reabsorbing the tissue. There is inflammation. My body just needs time,” she said.
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Martin said that she wanted to share her story to bring greater awareness to fibroids, which around 20 to 50% of reproductive age women have,according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. And fibroids are even more common in Black women, where they often go undetected and unaddressed.
“I share my story because I think a lot of women don’t know all of their options for fibroid treatment,” Martin said. “Dr. Schiffman told me that many women suffer for years because they think that surgery is the only solution, and that Black women in particular are less likely to be told of minimally invasive treatment options.”
source: people.com
