#WCW: Talking Fibroid Pain with FKA Twigs

On this week's Woman Crush Wednesday, we are celebrating singer (and former Robert Pattinson fiance) FKA Twigs for opening up about her fibroid pain and treatment journey. Back in 2018, the star revealed on Instagram that she had  laproscopic surgery to remove six fibroids from her uterus. 

She went on to share: "the tumours were pretty huge, the size of 2 cooking apples ? ?, 3 kiwis ? ? ? and a couple of ??.
a fruit bowl of pain everyday. the nurse said that the weight and size was like being 6 months pregnant."

More recently, Twigs went on the TTYA Talks Podcast to give an in-depth account of her journey with fibroids.

Fibroid Pain and Loneliness

Sadly, for FKA Twigs, the journey to healing was extremely tough. Two years ago, she shared: "I tried to be brave but it was excruciating at times and to be honest I started to doubt if my body would ever feel the same again,” she said. “I had surgery in December and I was so scared, despite lots of love from friends and family I felt really alone and my confidence as a woman was knocked.”

And on the podcast, she got real about how scared and alone she felt while dealing with her symptoms.

"You could physically see them—like I could put my hand into my stomach and grab them like eggs," Twigs said. Still, she avoided seeking treatment until her pain was so terrible that she needed immediate medical care.

"I was working so much," she explains, "and I was so determined [to] make an album, that I actually knew that I had some sort of growth in my stomach for a long time, and I didn’t do anything. I assumed that I had stomach cancer and that I was going to die. It was kind of this underlying stress that I have never told anyone about."

FKA Twigs and the Road to Recovery

The good news is that, six months later, the singer was feeling better and ready to share a message with other struggling women: “I know that a lot of women suffer from fibroid tumours and I just wanted to say after my experience that you are amazing warriors and that you are not alone. you can get through this,” she said, concluding, “and with this I let go of the pain… love always twigs.”

And, two years later, her message is still empowering other women living with the pain of uterine tumors. After Twigs' appearance, TTYA host Irene Agbontaen said, “When Twigs first told me she had fibroids - I have to be honest I didn’t realize how many women suffer from them. The more she educated me and the more research I did I was so surprised by the high percentage of women of color who have fibroids. Twigs is a very shy and private person, but she was so passionate about telling her story.”

Finding Alternative Fibroid Treatments

We are so thankful that laproscopic surgery helped FKA Twigs feel like herself again; certainly, many women have been helped by similar procedure. Still, any kind of surgery is traumatic to your body, so why go under the knife if there's another option?

Thankfully, there is! Known as Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE), it's a minimally invasive fibroid treatment delivered through a catheter inserted into your arm. Women can typically avoid hospital stays with this outpatient procedure and most feel well enough to stand up and walk immediately afterwards.

So to all of Ms. Twigs' fellow fibroid warriors, we say: know your options. Come into our Houston Fibroids office and find out if UFE is right for you!

Sources: Grazia Magazine