On 1st June 2019, we’ll be hosting a webinar on the emotional impact of fibroids, an issue that is often neglected, but we believe this is a very important area to focus on.
When many of us think about fibroids and its effects, we tend to think about the physical and medical symptoms, such as heavy menstrual bleeding, prolonged periods, abdominal pain, anaemia and back pain. The emotional and psychological impact of fibroids is not at the forefront of women’s minds or even their doctor’s, but it is very important that this is addressed to ensure a complete recovery.
We first identified the importance of exploring the emotional impact of fibroids in 2014, when we conducted a survey to understand the needs of women with fibroids. As we were analysing the results of the survey, we noticed that a significant number of women were describing how living with fibroids was affecting their mental wellbeing. For example, women said the following:
“I have hated life at times because of fibroids. I feel like I am being punished for something.”
“Depression from feeling that my only options were drugs or surgery”
“Fear of not being able to have children”
“Just a constant fear of what they could become”
As a result of this, we started to explore this issue further by speaking to women who attended our events and soon realised that this was a much wider problem. To compound this issue there was little information available, at the time, about the emotional impact of fibroids and no services to support women in addressing these issues.
We decided that going forward, the emotional and psychological impact of fibroids would be embedded in all our work. This would ensure that women are able to identify, understand and address the emotional impact of fibroids. We hope this will allow women to get help promptly and develop the resilience and skills required to improve their mental health, should it be affected by their experience with fibroids.
So far, we have organised two conferences aimed at women with fibroids, one in London and one in St Kitts, and both covered the emotional impact of fibroids. We worked with accredited counsellor Olivia Haltman to develop a fact sheet on this topic and we’ll soon be updating our fibroids booklet to include information on fibroids and women’s wellbeing. We were also delighted to see that Olivia Haltman has developed the first online course on the emotional impact of fibroids after our work together revealed this was much needed.
Our latest initiative is our webinar on 1st June which will feature Olivia Haltman, founder of OH Services and Jo-Ann Hamilton, founder of Rare Birds.
In this webinar, Olivia will take attendees through how living with fibroids can affect a woman’s mental health and how women with fibroids can improve their emotional wellbeing.
We’re also honoured to have Jo-Ann Hamilton, the Founder of Rare Birds, sharing her 10-year experience with fibroids, how this experience affected her mental wellbeing and how she overcame this challenging journey.
If you’ve been affected by fibroids, you are very welcome to attend this webinar. register for this webinar here or if you have any questions, please email us at events@lakehealthandwellbeing.com
