Our next Women’s Wellness Community session will take place on 11th August at 6 pm, and our focus will be on nutrition.
We are delighted to welcome guest speaker Ms Genesia Pemberton, Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Officer at the Nevis Health Promotion Unit.
In today’s blog post, we hear from Shaniyah Wattley, the Facilitator and Co-Founder of the new Women’s Wellness Community, a new support group for women affected by fibroids, endometriosis and PMOS.
We’re delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant through the Covista Caribbean Community Program to support the first 12 months of our new Women’s Wellness Community – a support group for women living with fibroids, endometriosis and PMOS (PCOS).
The Barbados Association of Endometriosis and PCOS (BAEP) recently published ‘Invisible Not Imaginary’, a collection of short stories that aims to put the spotlight on endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS and dysmenorrhea. The book seeks to raise awareness of the impact of these conditions on the lives of those directly and indirectly affected.
This mostly fictional book invites you to dive into the lives of a variety of people as they navigate life with one of the above-mentioned conditions. Through Invisible Not Imaginary we explore the experience of adolescents, young women, mothers, working professionals and fathers.
We thought Invisible Not Imaginary was a powerful and insightful read. It bravely explores issues like heavy menstrual bleeding, painful periods and infertility – common symptoms of these conditions. It also identifies the insensitivity, lack of empathy and the insecurities that women with these conditions encounter and experience.
Furthermore, the book causes the reader to reflect on the wide-spread normalisation of abnormal menstrual symptoms, the enormous pressure women feel to keep going despite feeling unwell and how invisible and misunderstood many women with these conditions feel.
The stories are very moving providing an honest, open account of the pain, isolation, upheaval, disruption and uncertainty caused by these gynaecological conditions which tend to be trivialised and disregarded because they are not life-threatening but as these stories clearly demonstrate, they significantly affect the quality of life, health and wellbeing of the many women who are affected.
We could relate to many of the experiences and believe the stories will resonate with most, if not all, women because of our shared menstrual experience. Many women have a story about their menstrual health which they are hesitant to talk about; this book tells our story and gives us all a voice.
This collection of short stories is an excellent and creative way of raising awareness. It really brings the issues to life in a powerful way and leaves the reader feeling disturbed by the challenges faced by those affected by these conditions.
This book challenges society to address the health inequalities that exist in public health where conditions like these receive little attention, yet affect so many.
Sadly, discussions about women’s health or reproductive health tend to omit conditions like fibroids and it’s time for a greater focus on these conditions and more balance so that all women’s health issues are deemed important.
We applaud BAEP on all the great work they have conducted to add some context and depth to the discussion on these women’s health issues and believe this will be an effective resource for awareness and educational work in a range of settings – schools, colleges, medical schools, book clubs, the health sector’s continuous professional development programme and more.
For more information on Invisible Not Imaginary and how you can order copies, please visit BAEP’s website here or you can send them an email
Also, you can read a summary of our fibroids and endometriosis Twitter chat with Julia Mandeville the co-founder of BAEP here
We’re so pleased to announce that the featured guest for our October Fibroids Twitter chat will be Julia Mandeville, the Co-Founder of the Barbados Association of Endometriosis and PCOS.
Research suggests that 30% of women with fibroids have endometriosis and in many cases this additional condition goes undiagnosed for many years. By raising awareness of endometriosis we can empower women with the information needed to facilitate an early diagnosis so that the most appropriate treatment is received without delay.
We are so delighted to have Julia as a guest so our followers can get a better understanding of endometriosis especially women with fibroids who may have unexplained symptoms which could be due to this condition.
Julia Mandeville has been a science and health educator since 2010, gaining a B.Sc in Biology with Microbiology with honours from the University of the West Indies. She also holds a Master of Public Health with a specialization in Global Health from the University of Manchester.
Julia is the co-founder of the Barbados Association of Endometriosis and PCOS (BAEP) and is an emerging global health professional who has a particular interest in reproductive health rights, invisible chronic disease management, research and policy specifically as it relates to Caribbean women’s health.
Her personal struggle with Endometriosis and subsequent diagnosis was the catalyst that caused her to utilize her voice and become an advocate. She also has experience as a consultant and more recently has expanded her academic portfolio with certificates in gender, development and NGO management.
The BAEP was founded to address the knowledge gap as it pertains to these pelvic conditions and their impact in Barbados. It serves to advocate for the women in Barbadian society who are suffering due to lack of awareness and works to engage with major and relevant stakeholders to raise these conditions to a priority level in the public health community.
The BAEP is a non-governmental organization located in Barbados which has also collaborated with local and regional entities with similar mandates.
Join our #FibroidsChat to find out more about endometriosis and the great work that BAEP is conducting to support Caribbean women affected by endometriosis and PCOS. To take part in the conversation find us on Twitter on 10th October at 3pm ( AST or 8pm GMT ) and use the hashtag #FibroidsChat.
You can find out more about the BAEP here and you can follow the BAEP on social media:
Twitter: @endoandpcosbb
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EndoFacts/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/endoandpcosbb/?hl=en
To be kept up-to-date on this topic, please sign-up to receive our fibroids newsletter and you can read a summary of our previous #FibroidsChats here
