We raise awareness and campaign to improve the experience of all women who have been affected by fibroids. We do this by taking part in government consultations, developing awareness campaigns and working in collaboration with our global partners on key issues.

Global Fibroids Campaign 2019

In June 2019, we joined forces with organisations from the Caribbean, UK, US and France to launch a campaign calling for a greater focus on fibroids.

The campaign highlighted the need for a global change where all stakeholders (healthcare professionals, women and their families) are better informed about fibroids so they are empowered to take action to improve the health and wellbeing of the many women affected by this condition.

Specifically, organisers called  for a greater awareness of:

• The symptoms of fibroids to facilitate an early and accurate diagnosis;
• All the treatment options available so that women can make an informed decision about the treatment that best suits their situation; and
• What actions women with fibroids can take to improve their physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing

You can read more about the campaign here

International Women’s Day 2018 Fibroids Campaign

The theme for International Women’s Day in 2018  was #PressForProgress and we teamed up with Noire Wellness to #PressForProgress to improve the experience of women with fibroids.  Our campaign raised awareness of key changes that are required for progress to be made and we still firmly believe that for progress  to be made, we need:

Because fibroids tend to be overlooked, many women who are affected don’t always know who to turn to for support and are left to suffer in silence. We want to change this and are developing our support programme to ensure that no one with fibroids feels isolated and alone.

Here are some of our support services:

Fibroids Ask the Expert

Do you have questions about fibroids? Are you wondering what the risk factors for fibroids are? Are you confused about treatment options? Want to understand natural and holistic approaches to managing fibroids?  Our Ask The Expert service is here to help. It gives you the opportunity to get answers to all your questions from experts in the field.

Our experts will empower you with the information that you need to understand this condition and make informed decisions about your journey with fibroids.

You can submit your questions here

Fibroids Self-Care Webinar Series

This series focuses on fibroids self-care to provide women with practical, useful, empowering information that will allow women with fibroids to take control of their health and live well.

Our series will include webinars focusing on diet, hormones, treatment, exercise and emotional wellbeing. We’re so happy to have experts in the field who’ll be leading interactive and engaging sessions that will allow an in-depth look at their topic of interest.

Find out more and register for our next webinar here

Fibroids Self-Management Course

Have you been affected by fibroids? Are you based in St Kitts and Nevis? Then you can register to attend a self-management course. You’ll learn techniques that will help you to improve your quality of life and mental wellbeing. Topics covered in the course include:

• Problem-solving
• Dealing with difficult emotions
• Action planning
• Decision making
• Breaking the symptom cycle
• And more

To register an interest in this self-management course, please email us  or call 668 1518

My Fibroids Story

Sharing personal stories of women with fibroids can be very therapeutic and provide comfort to those who are going through similar experiences. Reading such stories can also be inspirational, provide a realistic view of living with fibroids, be educational and importantly create a community where women no longer feel alone and isolated.

So, we’re collating fibroids stories from a diversity of women, empowering stories that delve into the realities of living with fibroids, how women have overcome any challenges they have faced and the lessons they have learnt along the way.

You can read these stories in our My Fibroids Story page and if you’d like to share your story, please do get in touch with us by email

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You can keep up-to-date on all our work in this area by signing up to our fibroids mailing list below:

We organise regular events that provide women affected by fibroids with the opportunity to learn more about the condition, meet other women with fibroids and connect with experts in the field.

Our events fall into three main categories – awareness, education and support – which each have their own distinct focus area.

We host in-person and online events with the aim of reaching as many women as possible.

In the future, we hope to organise events specifically for healthcare professionals such as fibroids study days, conferences and workshops.

Events that we have hosted in the past include:

• Fibroid Focus: an educational day for women, based in the UK, who have been affected by fibroids
• Girl Talk: Fibroids: an educational day for women, based in St Kitts, who have been affected by fibroids
• Community-based presentations: a short awareness presentation aimed at creating awareness of fibroids
• Fibroids Twitter Chats: a series of conversations with individuals and organisations working in the field to highlight their work and raise awareness of their impact
• Fibroids Self-Care Webinar Series: a collection of live webinars and pre-recorded presentations to empower women and provide them with the support and information they need to take control of their health

To  register and find out more about our upcoming events, please visit the events section of our website or you can sign up to receive our fibroids newsletter below:

Through our fibroids publications, we aim to provide useful, simple and straightforward information on fibroids. We have produced a fibroids booklet, reviewed by healthcare professionals and women with fibroids; are creating a series of fact sheets on areas that women have highlighted are important to them and have also produced a report summarising a small piece of research we conducted to explore the needs of black women with fibroids.

Booklets and Reports

Understanding the Needs of Women with Fibroids

We conducted some research to understand the experience of African and African-Caribbean women with fibroids. This work explored the needs of women with fibroids and determined if women had access to enough information and support. Our findings then informed the development of our fibroids information and support programme.

You can read our report here.

Publication date:  21st January 2015

Redesign: July 2019

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Fibroids Booklet

Our booklet provides much-needed information on all aspects of fibroids from symptoms and risk factors to treatment and prevention. It aims to ensure that women have accurate, reliable information about fibroids. We hope this booklet will be a one-stop-shop for anyone with questions or concerns about fibroids.

You can read the booklet here.

Publication date: 29th July 2015

Our booklet will be updated in 2020

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Fact Sheets

Fibroids and Exercise – in this fact sheet we discuss how exercise may help with alleviating symptoms and provide readers with simple tips on how to get active without aggravating their current symptoms.

Updated: March 2019

Download here:  Fibroids and Exercise Fact Sheet

Acknowledgements: We’d like to thank Candice Bryan from Noire Wellness for contributing to this fact sheet and Way Wive Wordz Publishing, Editing and Tuition.

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Fibroids and Your Emotional Wellbeing: this fact sheet aims to help women identify, understand and address the emotions that may be associated with having fibroids.

Updated: April 2019

Download here:  Fibroids and Your Emotional Wellbeing

Acknowledgements: We’d like to thank Olivia Haltman from OH Counselling Services for co-authoring this fact sheet and Way Wive Wordz Publishing, Editing and Tuition for editing this document.

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Infographics

Fibroids and COVID-19: this comprehensive infographic explores how the COVID-19 pandemic may be affecting fibroids patients and provides some self-care and stress management tips to help women cope during this challenging time.

Published: 18th May 2020

Download here: Fibroids and COVID-19 Infographic

Reviewed by: Dr Oduntan, District Medical Officer, St Kitts and Nevis

You can download a list of the references used to prepare this infographic here

We would like to thank our volunteer, Mariana Ndrio, a second-year medical student at the UMHS in St Kitts and Nevis for her hard work in preparing this resource.

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What You Need to Know About Fibroids: This infographic provides an overview of fibroids covering what fibroids are, the different types, risk factors, prevention tips and symptoms.

Published: 1st June 2020

Download here: What You Need to Know About Fibroids

You can download a list of references used to prepare this infographic here

We would like to thank Dr Sofia Miah, who recently graduated from the University of Exeter Medical School, for her hard work in preparing this infographic.

This infographic was reviewed by a UK-based gynaecologist.

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We are committed to making all our resources free and easily accessible to all those who need it. You can help us with this commitment by making a donation which will go towards the costs of producing our health information which includes the costs of design, printing and editing. You can make a donation here. Thank you for any help that you can provide.

Please note that our online payments are being managed by JAD Cash,  a comprehensive e-money solution for the Eastern Caribbean countries. All online payments will, therefore, be processed in Eastern Caribbean Dollars (XCD)

Wednesday 4th April, 2018

Today, we touch on the Healthy Caribbean Coalition’s new childhood obesity prevention campaign, why this campaign is important, what policies the HCC is encouraging governments in the Caribbean to introduce to tackle childhood obesity and how you can get involved.

We recently came across this really useful ‘Know Your Flow’ infographic created by Be Prepared.Period. It provides really clear information to help you understand what is normal with regards to your period.

For women with fibroids this infographic may be useful  in assisting you when you’re having a conversation with your doctor during your follow-up appointments.  Using the information provided in this infographic you can describe how heavy your period is and explore with your doctor whether the colour of your period is cause for concern.  This may help your doctor understand whether your symptoms are getting better and whether a particular treatment has been effective.

Check out the infographic below and let us know in the comments section below whether you found this useful or not, and you can find out more about Be Prepared. Period on their website here

Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link

Wednesday 28th March, 2018

In this week’s episode we had a really interesting and informative discussion with Olivia Haltman about the emotional impact of fibroids and how women with fibroids can improve their emotional wellbeing.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition has launched their Childhood Obesity Prevention Petition as part of their Civil Society Action Plan for 2017-2019.

The aim of the petition is to raise awareness of childhood obesity in the Caribbean and to influence the region’s leaders to champion and implement critical policies that will improve the health of our children, reduce childhood obesity and prevent the associated non-communicable diseases.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition plans to present their petition at the CARICOM Heads of Governments Conference in Jamaica in July, which presents the perfect opportunity to raise this issue.

With 1 in 3 children in the Caribbean being overweight or obese urgent action is needed and therefore the HCC needs your help. Please add your voice to the HCC’s call for action to be taken on childhood obesity by signing their petition and encouraging your contacts to do so too.

We can all make a difference and improve our children’s health, and this petition is just the first step.

Thank you for your support. For more information on this campaign and to sign the petition, please visit: www.healthycaribbean.org/yourvoicematters

Welcome back to our gardening and health blog series where we’ve been taking you on a personal journey as we explore the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening for ourselves. Today, Abi Begho is back and this time she’s sharing her experience of growing okra and why she thinks okras are the stars of the show.

Growing okra plants has been fantastic. So far, they have been the star of the show! They seem to absolutely love the hot climate here in St Kitts and have really thrived producing lots and lots of okra pods. We have had so much okra that we ran out of okra recipes and weren’t sure what to do with them – we have made gumbo (multiple times), crispy okra (a few variations), stewed okra and tomatoes (many times), Nigerian okra stew, okra in scrambled eggs (!) and okra in various salads. It’s been a fun experience.

Let’s Start at the Beginning: What is Okra?

Okra also called okro, ochro and ladies fingers is a popular vegetable in West Africa, India and the Southern States of the US. It is a very hardy plant being heat and drought tolerant and as you guessed, it is a tropical plant and doesn’t do well in cold temperatures.

It belongs to the mallow family of plants making it a close relation to the hibiscus (it was hard to believe this until I saw the okra flower myself), cotton and cacao, just to name a few of its cousins.

There are many varieties of okra, I read somewhere there are thousands (who knew! I am learning so much from gardening). Some of the popular varieties of okra are Clemson Spineless,  Red Burgundy, Burgundy, Emerald and Cajun Delight.

Okra is a healthy, tasty addition to your diet containing vitamin B, vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and calcium. It is also very high in fibre.

How I Got Started Growing Okra

We love okra so it was one of the first things on my list of things to grow in our garden.

Having read that there are so many varieties of okra, I was a bit confused and unsure about what variety of okra to grow. So I consulted with my trusty friend, YouTube, and the consensus was that Clemson Spineless was a good variety to start with.  So, I headed to the shop and bought a packet of seeds and planted several of them  in a container.

I was shocked by how quickly the seeds germinated. I expected them to germinate in 5-7 days, but just three days later I had little seedlings growing happily in my container.  I left them for a week or so and then transplanted them into the garden, being careful with the roots, as they are very delicate, and left them to do their thing. I just watered them every now and again and made sure they were in a nice sunny spot and I watched them grow.

Buds, Flowers and Okra Pods

About a month after I planted the seeds I noticed my very first okra buds. I literally squealed with delight when I saw them, it was so unexpected as was my squeal – my husband thought I was being attacked or something! Then three weeks later, the most beautiful okra flower appeared and then promptly disappeared within a couple of hours – if you blink you miss the beauty (Okra flowers only open for a few hours and then they close up  in preparation for okra pod formation). Two days after the flower appeared a tiny little okra pod had formed and then, voila, two days after that I had picked my first okra – yay!

Below you can see the progression from okra bud to okra pod.

In total I have 9 okra plants and for months they were serious okra producing machines! Like I mentioned earlier, we had so much okra we didn’t know what to do with them. It was great! And, I just have to mention how perfect the okras have been. I have never ever seen such good-looking okras and we used to buy okra all the time in the UK. Every okra I picked was beautifully formed, no defects and very tasty.

 As I type  the okra plants are 5 months old and sadly they are looking a bit tired, okra pod production has slowed down, their leaves have dropped and the plants don’t look as healthy as they did a few months ago. I think they are coming to the end of their lifespan or maybe they have some kind of fungal disease as I read they are supposed to keep producing for a really long time.  So, I have bought some new seeds and will be planting these soon.

Final Thoughts

I have really enjoyed growing (and eating!) okra. It has been pretty straightforward as okras are very low maintenance and, as I mentioned previously, very hardy,  so they have given me no problems whatsoever.

If you live in a warm climate I highly recommend you try growing okra and if you live in a cold country, you can still jump on board and grow them during the summer months.

WelI… that’s it for now. In my next blog I’ll be discussing my lovely little bell peppers. See you then and happy gardening!

If you want purchase some okra seeds, I recommend the Clemson Spineless, which is what I grew and had great success with. You can order some seeds from Amazon below

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If you missed our previous blogs you can read them using the links below

1. Improving Our Health and Wellbeing Through Gardening: An Introduction
2. Improving Our Health and Wellbeing Through Gardening: How I Got Started
3.  Improving Our Health and Wellbeing Through Gardening: Growing Tomatoes

We’re so happy to announce that our April Fibroids Twitter Chat will be with  Le’Nise Brothers on Wednesday 18th April at 7pm,  GMT (that’s 11am PST, 2pm EST and 2pm AST).

Le’Nise Brothers,  is a nutrition and wellbeing coach for women who struggle with low energy, sugar cravings and hormonal issues such as PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, post-natal depletion and perimenopause.  Le’Nise loves seeing her clients regain their spark, improve their health and boost their energy.

Le’Nise is a registered naturopathic Nutritional Therapist, specialising in women’s health, anxiety, depression and weight loss.  She qualified after an intensive 3 year programme at the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London, England, including over 200 clinical hours seeing clients in the student clinic.  She is also a member of the British Association of Nutritional Therapists (BANT), a regulatory body that oversees nutritional therapists in the UK.

We’ll be having a really interesting discussion with Le’Nise on the  the topic of fibroids, hormones and nutrition.

So, if you have a burning question on fibroids, the role that hormones play in their development and how  our diet impacts hormonal disorders like fibroids, then do join us on 18th April. To take part in the conversation please use the hashtag #FibroidsChat.

For more information on Le’Nise, please visit her website  eatlovemove.com or follow her on social media

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/eatlovemove

Facebook: www.facebook.com/eatlovemovenutrition

Instagram:  www.instagram.com/eatlovemove/