Erica James woke up one morning last year to find a lump near her belly button. Initially, she thought she had slept on her remote control and used frozen vegetables as an ice pack. The lump felt tough but did not hurt. Living with scoliosis, she was used to her body not feeling straightforward. She booked a GP appointment, and the doctor pressed her stomach briefly, diagnosing constipation and prescribing a laxative.
James followed the plan exactly—medication, water, more fibre—but her body did not respond. The lump stayed. She felt bloated and experienced pressure around her belly button, like a hard mass. The lump became visible through her clothes. When stressed, it would cramp; bending down to pick something up was painful. After a couple of weeks, she stopped the medication and booked an appointment with another GP for a second opinion.
Second GP spotted the lump immediately
That second appointment changed everything. Before James fully explained, the new GP spotted the lump from the end of the bed. The bulge was visible; James could cup it with the palm of her hand. The GP examined her with more precision and said, ‘This could be fibroids’—non-cancerous growths of tissue. Hearing the word transported James back to 2017, when an ultrasound for her scoliosis had revealed a small fibroid on her uterus. The doctor at that time had assured her it was nothing to worry about as it was ‘so small’.
Now, the GP told James she urgently needed hospital scans. James began to cry—not just from fear, but from relief that the lump finally had a potential name. She was referred for a full 40-minute abdominal scan. Her mother accompanied her, and the room was quiet except for the machine moving across her stomach, hips, and abdomen.
Waiting for answers: two to three months
Between the GP appointment and the ultrasound, James looked for understanding anywhere she could find it. Her mother sent clips of women speaking about fibroids online. James found spaces where Black women shared their experiences openly. She learned that many people with fibroids—Black women in particular—were of a similar age (20s, 30s) and did not feel seen or heard by most medical professionals. They felt many GPs in the UK and US collectively lacked information on fibroids to diagnose or treat them, meaning they could grow so big that many require surgery.
Several weeks after the scan, James received a call from the hospital. Her mother was in the kitchen, so she put it on speaker. The doctor confirmed multiple fibroids, one around 7cm. James cried again. The doctor explained that fibroids usually cause heavier and more painful periods—something James had often experienced, and now she knew why. Her bleeding had become even heavier when the lump appeared, and with all the bloating, it became clear how much her fibroids had multiplied since the ‘small’ one in 2017.
Black women three times more likely to develop fibroids
James says, “What stays with me most is how often Black women are expected to prove their pain before it is fully explored. I discovered that we are up to three times more likely to develop fibroids, yet it still wasn’t treated as a consideration when I first walked into my GP surgery.” She thinks about how symptoms are read differently depending on skin tone, and how easily things can be missed when assumptions are made too quickly. “If I hadn’t pushed for a second opinion, I might still be taking medication for constipation while, in fact, something else entirely was happening.”
Now James has ongoing gynaecology appointments and monitoring to check if the fibroids get bigger, and to see if any treatment may be needed—like injections to lower oestrogen levels, which is thought to encourage the growth of uterine fibroids, or potential procedures to shrink them and stop heavy bleeding. She often has to wait months to be seen. “It’s a frustrating waiting game,” she says, “but I’ve learned what it feels like when something is being missed. I listen to my gut, literally.” She carries hope that sharing her story might make it easier for someone else to be believed the first time around.
