South Asian Women Can’t Ignore Fibroids Anymore

In July 2021, Payal Shah started experiencing stabbing pains in her abdomen. Soon, her stomach started expanding, pressing against her organs and making it difficult to fit into clothes. “I thought I was pregnant,” she told The Juggernaut. It wasn’t until September when a doctor in Iceland, where she was living, diagnosed her with fibroids. 

“He told me it was no big deal,” Shah said. Unconvinced, she called Dr. Angela Chaudhari, an OB-GYN from Chicago, where her parents lived, for a second opinion. Dr. Chaudhari told Shah that her case was serious, and she likely needed an emergency hysterectomy. In December, doctors found a fibroid growing outside her uterus “the size of a watermelon.” Shah, who at one point was trying to have a child, still has no idea if undetected fibroids had prevented her from getting pregnant.

Emerging research shows that, after Black women, South Asian women are more likely than any other ethnic group to get fibroids, non-cancerous tumors that grow in and outside of the uterus. They can cause symptoms ranging from heavy periods to infertility. Lupita Nyong’o recently spoke up about her diagnosis, prompting a larger conversation about why so few people are aware of it. The Juggernaut spoke to doctors, researchers, advocates, and fibroid patients to understand the silent epidemic that’s affecting us far more than we realize.