Beyond Fibroids — Reflecting on Reproductive Health

Oct 3

7 min read

Beloved, I remember sitting in my Nana's kitchen, half-listening the way children do, while she and my aunties talked in low voices about "women's troubles." Nobody ever said the word fibroid out loud. It was just a knowing look, a hand pressed to the lower belly, a "you know how it is" passed between them like a secret nobody chose to keep — it just got handed down anyway, generation to generation, whether they wanted to carry it or not.

I didn't understand then what I understand now: that silence wasn't peace. It was resignation. And I refuse to hand that same silence down to you, Sis.

Fibroids aren't rare for us. They're common enough that many of us grew up hearing about them exactly the way I did — in that hushed, resigned tone, like they were simply part of the inheritance nobody was allowed to question. Like it was just what happens to us.

It isn't just inheritance. And before we talk about healing, I need us to sit with what's actually going on, because you can't tend a root you've never been shown.

The Numbers We Have to Sit With

In one small study of women ages 18 to 30, about 26% of Black women already had ultrasound-detectable fibroids, compared to about 7% of white women. By 35, more than 60% of Black women have them, and by 50, more than 80% of us will have them. Read that again. Eighty percent.

And it isn't only about who gets them — it's about how we're treated once we do. More than 400,000 hysterectomies are performed in the United States every year, and a peer-reviewed study out of the University of Michigan found that about 18% of hysterectomies for benign conditions had pathology that did not support the surgery. Black women are more likely to have a hysterectomy, and more likely to have it as open abdominal surgery. A UK parliamentary report found Black women were disproportionately offered hysterectomy first. Our pain has too often been minimized. Our symptoms dismissed as "just cramps" or "just how your body is." Our reproductive autonomy narrowed down by a system that, frankly, wasn't built with us in the room.

And this isn't just an American story. In January 2026, the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists issued a formal warning that its own gynecology system is failing Black women with fibroids — finding that Black women in England develop fibroids younger, experience more severe symptoms, and are overrepresented on treatment waiting lists compared to their share of the population. Different country, different healthcare system, same pattern. This tells us something important: this isn't a flaw in one system. It's a pattern that follows us wherever the system wasn't built with us in mind.

This isn't a personal health quirk you happened to draw. It's a pattern. And patterns have root causes — which means patterns can also be met with real, informed action.

Signs Your Body May Already Be Telling You

So many of us normalize these symptoms for years before ever connecting them to fibroids. If any of this sounds familiar, it's worth a conversation with your doctor — not as an alarm, just as information you deserve to have:

Heavy or prolonged periods — soaking through a pad or tampon in under two hours, or bleeding that lasts longer than seven days.
Pelvic pressure or a feeling of fullness — sometimes described as feeling "bloated" low in the abdomen even outside your cycle.
Frequent urination — fibroids pressing on the bladder can make you feel like you constantly need to go.
Pain during intercourse — a symptom many women quietly stop mentioning to anyone, including their doctor.
Lower back or leg pain — larger fibroids can press on nerves and cause pain that seems unrelated to reproductive health at first.
Fatigue and anemia — heavy bleeding month after month can quietly drain your iron levels, leaving you exhausted in a way that rest alone doesn't fix.

None of this means something is wrong with you. It means your body is communicating, the way it always has — we just haven't always been taught to listen.

What's Actually Driving This

Estrogen dominance. Fibroids feed on estrogen — whether that's the body producing too much of it, the liver struggling to clear it efficiently, or exposure to xenoestrogens hiding in everyday plastics, personal care products, and BPA-lined containers that mimic estrogen once they're inside the body. Most of us are surrounded by these compounds daily without ever knowing to ask the question.

Vitamin D deficiency. This one doesn't get talked about nearly enough, and it matters. A striking majority of African American women run low on vitamin D — often without symptoms obvious enough to prompt testing, and often because melanin itself reduces how efficiently our skin synthesizes vitamin D from sunlight. Low vitamin D is associated with higher fibroid risk. In an NIH-funded study, women with sufficient levels had 32% lower odds of fibroids, and lab studies suggest vitamin D plays a role in regulating hormone signaling and may even discourage the abnormal cell growth that forms fibroids in the first place.

Chemical exposure. Here's a hard truth, but an important one. Large studies of Black women have found that chemical hair relaxers, and some hair dyes, are associated with a higher risk of fibroids. Researchers suspect endocrine-disrupting ingredients but haven't identified which ones, and these products are marketed heavily, and almost exclusively, to Black women. Reducing exposure where you can is a reasonable step.

What Our Grandmothers Knew, and What Science Now Confirms

My Nana always said the body keeps its own record, and that tending it wasn't optional — it was a daily practice, not something you got to when you had time. Long before "wellness" was a marketplace word printed on candles and tote bags, our foremothers were reaching for teas, foods, and rituals that honored the womb as sacred, central ground — worth protecting, worth tending, worth listening to.

Here's what current research actually shows, rated honestly, because I won't oversell anything to you:

Green tea extract (EGCG) — the strongest evidence on this list, but still from one small trial. Women taking 800 mg of green tea extract capsules daily for four months saw fibroid volume shrink by about a third on average. Brewed tea has far less EGCG than those capsules, and supplement doses of 800 mg or more of EGCG a day can raise liver enzymes, so talk with your provider first. If you drink tea, choose loose-leaf or plastic-free bags, since some 'silken' bags are plastic and shed microplastics (health effects aren't yet known).
Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale) — lab studies suggest compounds in them may affect fibroid cells. There are no human fibroid trials, but they're a healthy daily addition to your plate.
Red raspberry leaf and nettle — traditional womb-tea herbs. Raspberry leaf is traditionally used to tone the uterus, and nettle is mineral-rich. Research on both for fibroids is thin, so think of them as support, not treatment. If heavy cycles have left you anemic, ask your provider about iron.
Vitex (chaste tree berry) — traditionally used for cycle and PMS support, but there is no research showing it helps fibroids. Because it acts on hormones, skip it and check with your provider if you take hormonal birth control or fertility medication.
Turmeric (curcumin) — anti-inflammatory, and in lab and animal studies it has slowed fibroid cell growth. There are no human fibroid trials yet. Always paired with black pepper and a source of fat for real absorption.
Castor oil packs — honest assessment: they will not shrink fibroids, but used consistently, they can meaningfully ease pelvic pain and inflammation. A comfort ritual, not a cure.

The RTR Daily Prevention Practice

This isn't a "cure fibroids in 30 days" list, and I won't sell you one. This is about tending the root conditions — estrogen dominance, nutritional deficiency, toxic load, inflammation — that allow fibroids to grow and symptoms to worsen in the first place.

Test and address your vitamin D first. Ask your doctor for a 25-OH vitamin D test. Ask what level is right for you; many guidelines use 20–30 ng/mL as the sufficiency line, and your provider can advise on dosing if you're low.
Remove the estrogen fuel. Transition away from chemical relaxers where you can. Switch to clean personal care products free of phthalates and parabens. Choose glass storage over plastic.
Feed your womb. Return to traditional, whole-food eating patterns rich in fruits, vegetables, beans, and fiber. Add cruciferous vegetables daily.
Move daily. Even a daily walk supports circulation to the pelvic bowl and helps regulate hormones over time.
Practice the castor oil womb pack. Apply over the lower abdomen, cover with flannel, add gentle heat, 3–4 times weekly.
Support your liver nightly. Milk thistle and dandelion root tea are traditional liver-support herbs. Research on them for fibroids is lacking, so treat them as a comforting ritual.
Tend to your stress. Chronic stress keeps cortisol and inflammation elevated. Rest, breathwork, and community are part of the protocol, not optional extras.

RTR Recommended Products

Loose-Leaf Green Tea: Mountain Rose Herbs or Frontier Co-op — both RTR-vetted for clean sourcing and true loose-leaf format. Skip tea bags entirely for this one.

Vitamin D3: Look for D3 as cholecalciferol in a softgel with MCT or coconut oil, third-party tested. Ask your provider about dosing.

Castor Oil for Packs: Choose 100% cold-pressed, hexane-free castor oil, paired with an unbleached flannel cloth. Avoid anything fragranced or blended.

A Word on Medical Options

This part matters, and I'm not going to skip past it. About 1 in 5 hysterectomies for benign conditions like fibroids may not have been medically necessary, and Black women are more likely to end up with the most invasive option. Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE) is a minimally invasive option that keeps the uterus. In a 10-year Dutch trial, about two-thirds of women who had UFE avoided hysterectomy, though about a third needed further treatment. UFE isn't advised if you hope to become pregnant, and myomectomy and medication are other options. In one national survey, only about 1 in 6 women with fibroids said UFE was presented to them, so ask about every option before agreeing to surgery.

You are allowed to ask your provider directly about UFE and every other less invasive option on the table. You are allowed to seek a second opinion, and a third if you need it. Your reproductive future is not a footnote in someone else's convenience.

Where to Begin

Start small, and start real. Remove what you can — the chemical relaxers, the plastic food storage, the processed foods that quietly feed inflammation. Add what supports you — cruciferous vegetables, loose-leaf green tea, whole foods rich in fiber. And give yourself grace for whatever this body has already carried, silently, for however long it's been carrying it.

Healing the womb is never separate from healing the whole woman. It never was.

Your healing starts at the root. 🌿

This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, supplement routine, or medication.