“I didn’t associate the fibroids with my symptoms. I had no idea that fibroids had symptoms,” tennis all-star Venus Williams recently shared. “No one ever explained that to me… I didn’t know I was living with something out of the ordinary.”
That really hit. Because for so many of us, the idea that something is off can take years to piece together—especially when our pain is minimized, dismissed, or labeled “normal.” In the MyAdvo WhatsApp Fibroids Channel this month, we found ourselves asking: Are we being too extreme for wanting treatment, like surgery, so soon after diagnosis? Especially when the fibroid is considered “small,” but the symptoms are anything but.
Up to 80% of women will develop fibroids by age 50, yet many don’t even know they have them until symptoms become debilitating. The most common treatments (like birth control or GnRH antagonists that mimic menopause) can help manage bleeding and pain, but they don’t remove fibroids.
In honor of Fibroid Awareness Month, I’ve been thinking about how much effort it takes to not just get care, but to believe you deserve care. Actress Lupita Nyong’o recently shared that after her own myomectomy, her doctor told her: “You can’t prevent them from coming back.”
Not all fibroids need treatment—especially when they don’t cause symptoms—but when they do, women are often dismissed. We’re told heavy, painful periods are just part of being a woman. Over time, we internalize that, making it even harder to speak up before fibroids grow large enough to impact fertility or require more invasive interventions.
Even after surgery, you’re rarely given guidance on how to prevent them from coming back. Besides hysterectomy, there’s no official “cure,” which only adds to the narrative that fibroids aren’t serious. I’ve been pushing back on that through functional medicine and lifestyle changes—skip to the Founder Health Update for what’s helped me, especially during pregnancy.
I’ve been thinking about what it means to feel seen—and to be taken seriously—when we speak up about our symptoms. Like Lupita, I believe women deserve more than dismissal or vague reassurances. We deserve options. We deserve care that matches the impact fibroids can have—not just on our bodies, but on our lives.
What helps you trust your instincts when you're second-guessing whether your symptoms are “serious enough”?
Join us on WhatsApp and share your thoughts.
MyAdvo community news: New community leads & referral program
Founder Health Update: Pregnant with fibroids
Women’s health in politics (or rather reproductive politics)
MyAdvo monthly reads
We rolled out a few exciting updates in the MyAdvo WhatsApp this month—starting with a new welcome flow for incoming members. Now, when you’re approved, you’ll first land in our Welcome channel alongside a small cohort of new members. From there, you can choose the sub-channels you’d like to join and share a quick intro. This gives you more control over how many chats you’re part of (because we get it—WhatsApp can get noisy fast) while helping you connect more intentionally with others in your stage or condition.
Introducing Our Community Leads! 💖
We're super excited to announce and celebrate our new Community Leads, who have stepped up to help facilitate conversations, share resources, and make sure everyone feels supported in their health journey 🫶
Meet Our Leads:
Hannah - PCOS
Laura - Fibroids
Eleis - Endometriosis
Nicole - Tri-State Area
Cait - Adenomyosis
Lisa - Adenomyosis
Thank you to these incredible volunteers for dedicating your time and energy to support our community!
And if YOU want to get more involved in supporting our community, just message me directly 🤗
Launch of our Referral Program
I’m also super excited to announce the launch of our Referral Program! We know how hard it can be to meet other women with endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids, or adenomyosis, so if you do know someone, we wanted to make it super easy to join MyAdvo. The Referral Program allows members to refer their friends by skipping the application and getting them directly approved into the MyAdvo WhatsApp.
Special shoutout to our incredible members who referred their friends with endo, fibroids, adeno, or PCOS to MyAdvo this month: Nicole, Alexis, Paola, and Hayley. Thank you for growing our MyAdvo family! 💖
In our members' WhatsApp chat, we have a few different channels so people can connect more deeply by condition and more recently by health stage like Pregnancy and Postpartum.
Here are a few highlights from our Endo, Fibroids, and Pregnancy & Postpartum chats this month:
How do you manage endometriosis pelvic pain when going through an egg retrieval cycle?
Encouraging our endo warriors on their upcoming endometriosis excision surgeries, especially those who’ve traveled out of state.
What recommendations do you have for a doctor to help with POTs or dysautonomia, which are frequent endometriosis comorbidities?
Do OBs typically recommend pelvic rest if you have a subchorionic hematoma?
Is fibroid surgery too “extreme” for a small fibroid with debilitating symptoms?
Join the conversation by becoming a MyAdvo member.
For Fibroids Awareness Month this July, I wanted to share how much of my pregnancy has been shaped by something I thought I already understood: my fibroids.
My Fibroid Story: A Quick Recap
I was first diagnosed with fibroids in my late 20s. At the time, it was just one submucosal fibroid—meaning it was growing in the uterine lining. When that fibroid got to be about the size of a grape (2cm), it started causing serious problems: heavy, clotted bleeding lasting 3 weeks out of every month, constant bloating, and ultimately severe anemia from iron deficiency. In 2019, I had surgery called a myomectomy to remove the fibroid. It was life-changing. My periods went back to a manageable 3-5 days. I thought that chapter was closed.
The Pregnancy Plot Twist
Fast forward to pregnancy: I knew I had 2 fibroids that had regrown since 2019. One was pedunculated (attached to the back of my uterus), and the other was another submucosal fibroid. They were relatively small before pregnancy, with my only symptom being slightly longer periods (7-9 days instead of my post-surgery 3-5). I was actually able to keep them from growing in size for a year through lifestyle changes like going gluten-free, limiting alcohol, and working hard to manage stress–all changes that helped me reduce inflammation. I had meant to get them removed before trying to conceive, but life had other plans.
Here's what surprised me: by my first pregnancy ultrasounds, not only had my 2 fibroids gotten bigger—a third one had appeared out of nowhere. This new fibroid was pressing slightly against the sac where the fetus was growing. The really shocking part? In just 4 months, that new fibroid went from the size of a marble (1cm) to the size of a ping pong ball (4cm).
The fibroid that's causing concern is submucosal. These types of fibroids are more likely to cause problems during pregnancy because they can change the shape of the space where the fetus is growing. Even small fibroids in the wrong spot can cause big problems if they're too close to the fetus or placenta (the organ that feeds the fetus).
My OB isn't currently concerned because my fibroids aren't too large, fetal growth looks normal, my placenta is healthy, and the fibroids don't seem to have extra blood vessels growing to them (a.k.a. increased vascularity). But I've learned that "not currently a problem" is different from "not something to watch."
After doing some of my own research, here’s what I’ve learned so far:
Fibroids can get bigger during pregnancy because of hormone changes (especially estrogen).
About 1 in 3 fibroids will grow during the first few months of pregnancy. Some actually shrink after the baby is born.
About 10-30% of pregnant women with fibroids have complications, primarily pain, especially with fibroids larger than 5 cm in the later trimesters.
Studies show fibroids can increase the risk of:
Miscarriage
Fetus not growing as well as expected (restricted fetal growth or IUGR)
Fetus being born too early (preterm labor)
Abnormal fetal positioning due to less space (like breech)
Pain or bleeding from fibroid degeneration
Placental complications (if fibroids grow near the placenta)
Increased risk of C-section
Heavy bleeding after delivery (postpartum hemorrhage)
Difficult labor (called "labor dystocia"—when contractions aren't strong enough or the baby can't move through the birth canal easily)
Placenta previa (when the placenta covers the cervix, blocking the baby's exit route)
While surgery is rarely done during pregnancy, contingency planning and proactive monitoring are essential, especially when a fibroid is in a sensitive location.
How I'm Advocating for Myself
These are the questions I plan to ask my OB at my 28 weeks scan:
Has the fibroid moved or gotten bigger since last time?
Is it affecting how my baby is growing or moving?
What's the plan if the fibroids start causing pain?
What are the chances I'll need a C-section?
Should we check if my cervix is staying strong (cervical length checks) to watch for preterm labor risk? What would checking that entail?
Should we do special ultrasounds to check blood flow to the baby?
What's the postpartum monitoring plan if I bleed too much after delivery?
Preparing for After the Baby Is Born
I’ve also been proactive thinking about postpartum. My functional medicine provider added another layer of preparation: checking iron levels. Since I've battled anemia before during my last fibroid saga, we're tracking ferritin and hemoglobin now to avoid being caught off guard. Fibroids can make bleeding worse after you have a baby, so we want to make sure my iron stores are good.
After the baby is born and my periods come back, I'm planning to get the fibroids checked again. They can change size and position after pregnancy, so I want to know what I'm dealing with.
Like many aspects of reproductive health, fibroids don't always hurt or bleed visibly—but they're always worth tracking. This pregnancy has been a reminder that birth plans are just that—plans—and my priority is a safe, healthy delivery for both baby and me. To anyone else navigating fibroids during pregnancy: you're not alone, and you're not overthinking it. These questions matter.
It’s been just over two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and while headlines still frame the conversation around “abortion access,” the fallout has stretched far beyond that. This month, three stories caught my attention — not because they’re outliers, but because they illustrate how deeply reproductive politics are now entangled with all aspects of women’s healthcare.
First, the FDA’s own advisory committee has called out the agency for misleadingly exaggerating the risks of SSRIs during pregnancy. According to STAT News, the FDA emphasized potential harms while downplaying the life-threatening consequences of untreated depression, particularly in pregnant and postpartum people. This directly contradicts guidance from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which issued a statement reaffirming the safety and importance of SSRIs during pregnancy. ACOG noted that “robust evidence has shown that SSRIs do not increase the risk of birth defects” and that untreated perinatal depression can have devastating consequences for both parent and baby. As someone who’s been grappling with prenatal mood shifts, this hit hard. We know hormonal depression is real. We also know that anxiety and depression are already underdiagnosed in women with PCOS, PMDD, and endometriosis. To frame SSRIs as inherently harmful, without acknowledging the harm of withholding treatment, is dangerous. It’s a reminder that women’s mental health is still seen as secondary — even when the data says otherwise.
Then, there’s the lawsuit out of Texas, where a man is suing a California OB-GYN for prescribing abortion pills to his ex-wife. This case is the first of its kind — a private citizen using Texas’ SB8 bounty law to go after a doctor across state lines, despite the fact that the abortion was legal in California and the doctor never left the state. The plaintiff, who is not a medical professional and was not married to the woman at the time of the abortion, is suing for wrongful death — a chilling tactic designed to make providers second-guess their willingness to help patients, even when acting within the bounds of their own state laws. This isn’t about protecting life. It’s about weaponizing the legal system to control women’s bodies across state lines. And if the lawsuit proceeds, it could open the door to suing providers anywhere, even for following the law in their own states.
Finally, in Tennessee, a pregnant woman was refused prenatal care because she wasn’t married. You read that right. Under the state’s Medical Ethics and Defense Act, providers are now protected if they want to deny care based on religious or moral objections. The hospital didn’t object to abortion or contraception. They objected to her marital status. It’s a chilling escalation — and a reminder that policies couched in “conscience protection” can and will be used to police women’s lives in even more invasive ways.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Each story is a ripple from the post-Roe tide. A growing number of states have begun expanding the definition of “personhood” and rolling back anti-discrimination protections under the guise of religious freedom or fetal rights. And while not every case makes national news, they are shifting the norms of care across the board — especially for people with chronic conditions who already struggle to be taken seriously in medical settings.
So if you’re reading this and thinking, “I’m not trying to get an abortion” or “I’m already on my meds” — just know: this is still about you. The fight over reproductive rights is quickly becoming a fight over whether women are allowed to make any medical decisions at all.
From policy to podcasts, research updates, trends, and other news to support your self-advocacy journey.
💛 Women with endo-linked infertility are more likely to conceive than previously thought
💊 Organon halts development of endometriosis pain drug after mid-stage trial fails
🧬 PCOS may be passed down through chemical tags on DNA
🩸What your period can reveal about fibroids
🩺 NIPT tests may also help detect pre-eclampsia and predict preterm birth
🚫 The U.S. is discarding nearly 10 million contraceptives—why?
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