The Christmas and New Year break are over and although I enjoyed it, I felt strangely relieved.  I think that’s because although it’s normally a really enjoyable time of year- it can also be highly stressful.  We know stress has an effect on general health. But how much do we know about how stress affects particular conditions associated with the Black community?  Black women have the highest risk of developing fibroids (non-cancerous growths in or around the womb). They can lead to heavy periods, period pain and pregnancy challenges (amongst other things). It is useful to know if stress plays a part in the existence of fibroids since we can control the way we handle stress.

A basic search of the literature doesn’t reveal many studies focused on the link between stress and fibroids.  One study did note that the increase in stress hormone cortisol can cause fluctuations in oestrogen and progestogen. Low levels of these hormones are linked to a reduction in fibroid growth.  This particular US study actually investigated the links between major-life event stress and fibroids in both Black and White women.  The authors reported  that the greater the number of ‘major life events’ the female experienced, the more likely she was to have fibroids. The pattern was evident among white women who had experienced all levels of stress yet only obvious  among  very highly stressed  Black women.  The authors of another study looked at 22,002 premenopausal  US Black women.  They reported that high levels of self-reported racism increased the risk of fibroids.  However, a study on Chinese women did not find any link between stress and the presence of fibroids. You can find out more about these studies here, here andhere.

Due to the small number of studies which investigate the link between fibroids and stress, it is difficult to say whether there is a true link- more work needs to be done in this area.  However, some people do find that they discover their fibroids after a period of stress in their lives. Have any of you had this experience?