 Still the 20th day of October still on why in the morning still the hardest breath for show around My name is still Valentine or at color me that on everything and you can find us at white 5 on Facebook Why 2 5 4 channel on Twitter hashtag is when the money is a good Monday. There's nothing blue about this Monday's book What do we do about the color was it but that should be the only blue thing I'm not getting my friend We are entering like this the health segment and we want to talk to you about things that are important to you Yes, I think it's important to turn to a youth channel You expect to see something that will benefit and we strive to do just that so lunch Don't get left fibroids and we're going to try and keep it along the age bracket of the youth so 19 up So again, you know what red finders the thing is over there or you could use our text sign to zero 1 5 4 start with Why 2 5 4 that is 2 0 1 5 4 start with why 2 5 4 and help me give a warm Welcome to my guest. Good morning. Morning. How are you? You look fantastic? Thank you. What's your name? My name is dr. Christina. I'm an obstetrician and gynaecologist. Okay. That's not a hot job Was it a pretty girl? It is a hot job. Yeah, you'll manage it. Well, I can see so talk to us about five points What are five points? so fibroids are basically Non-cancerous groups that happen inside the uterus they're not cancerous, but they do cause a bit of Anxiety a bit of distress to the patient who actually has them and they grow mostly inside the muscle of the uterus Mm-hmm. I have two stories to tell you first I hope she doesn't mind me sharing but my mom had fibroids at one point and her fibroids I don't know if it was the size I'm aware they were I'm something but they kind of made her look like she was expecting So some people got confused for a while and then I follow up with the question How is the baby really sad and no there was no baby because and then there's also on this person this Public figure I follow on Instagram. Her name is Ori. She's a model and she also got fibroids now When my mom got it in my head it was an age thing like one of Katomali as a woman you just Develop things but for her it hit hit me a bit close to home because she did not it was and she was trying to lose weight But it was not going away and she was really bummed out So I'm but I kind of hosting duck as a tour. So tell me is it an age thing? Is it a lifestyle kind of situation if I eat this I'll get fibroids if I don't what's happening here? So basically, okay specifically the case of your mom What happens is that fibroids especially when there's many of them they cause the uterus to enlarge and to become really big And so, you know pregnancy also causes the uterus to enlarge and become really big and that's why sometimes people can confuse it for pregnancy But yes abdominal distension is one of the symptoms of very large fibroids Unfortunately unless the fibroids are removed. There's nothing much that you can do about that kind of distention But it's not an age issue. Actually what causes fibroids is not really known However, it has been said that African women tend to develop fibroids more than Caucasian women and African women tend to develop fibroids younger and their fibroids grow faster than that of Caucasian women Ideally the bracket is 30 to 40 But we're seeing fibroids in much younger and younger and younger ladies Then then was previously detected. What's happening? Why the change? So as I said before the cause is not known However, some people have stipulated that obesity is one of the causes of fibroids Some people have said that alcohol consumption is one of the one of the causes Another cause is actually not having had children before Although that doesn't mean that if you've had children that you cannot have fibroids you can still have fibroids So yes, of course, there are very many things that are kind of related to that But yes women who are more obese and women who consume alcohol and women also who start their periods much earlier than the rest Are more predisposed to getting fibroids than the rest There is also a hereditary aspect to it meaning that if your mother or sister or aunt had fibroids You're likely to get fibroids as well. Unfortunately. But yes, there is a hereditary aspect to it Oh, wow, that's I did not know that there's a little bit scary. Is it something you can prevent? Unfortunately, no, it's not something you can prevent. However, you can prevent things like obesity and alcohol consumption But there are the factors like the hereditary factors or you know not having a child is sometimes not very much within your control But yes diet alcohol obesity that is within your control, but Preventing obesity and reducing alcohol consumption or stopping alcohol consumption is one of the things that helps more less any disease It's not limited to fibroids alone, which is true But we are in Kenya and for me party after party That's true. So I don't know what we're going to guys. I think it would be to make cash, too Yeah, so how do I know that it's Let's say I'm a random person in the audience. How do I know if I have a fibroid? What are the symptoms like? What's how do I expect? How do I? Read my own body Okay, so fibroids do come with a number of symptoms. One of them is changes in your menstrual pattern So one of the things you might have is heavy bleeding. Sometimes you can have bleeding in between your menstrual periods You might have a bit of pain or a considerable amount of pain during your periods Although there are other conditions that do cause menstrual pain as well Okay, aside from conditions and but this what happens if there's normal, you know men's menstrual pain How do you now tell the difference? Ideally you should not have too much menstrual pain It should be something that's variable something that you don't necessarily have to take medication for So if you have to take medication for your menstrual pain or if it's very severe if you're Unable to go to school or unable to go to work then that is considered as you know considerable menstrual pain And that could be because of other reasons, but one of the reasons is actually you train fibroids Wow, so your menstrual pattern can change you might have heavy periods Or you might have lower back pain or lower abdominal pain and then in other women they have symptoms such as Infertility, they're not able to get a baby. Oh, one of the reasons is because of fibroids I'm hoping like it's there's a situation where if you take them out then fertility goes away Yes, there is such a situation Not for everyone, but yes, there is such a station where the fibroids are taken out and the fertility actually returns But that depends on where the fibroids are placed because there are different places where the fibroids can be that affect Fertility and then there are other places where the fibroids are that don't affect fertility Those other places could affect bleeding or could affect other symptoms such as urination or passing of stool Where those places like where where can they attach themselves? It's a little freaky. Okay So the fibroid itself is inside the uterus It could be in the muscle of the uterus, which is kind of just within the uterus or it could Protude into the cavity of the uterus or it could be attached to the outer part of the uterus So when there are many fibroids within the muscle of the uterus It makes the uterus very heavy and the uterus tends to lie on sometimes on some of the organ Sometimes it can lie on the bladder. Sometimes it can move backwards and lie on the rectum Sometimes it can lie on one of the ureters and you know the ureters conduct urine from the kidney to the bladder So when it lies on one of the uterus it one of the ureters, it causes an obstruction in that place sometimes if it moves backwards it can cause an obstruction or a bit of difficulty in passage of stool because it's lying on the rectum Sometimes it can lie on the bladder and you have patients who have difficulty in passing urine But sometimes you can have a fibroid that's just literally attached to the outer surface of the uterus Yes, it can still cause these pressure symptoms that we call but sometimes it can actually twist upon itself So abdominal pain is one of the symptoms of uterine fibroids Because it's like on a little stem Attached to the uterus so that stem can actually twist But the ones that actually cause the most symptoms are the ones that Procured into the cavity of the uterus. Those ones cause difficulty in conception because the Developing baby literally has no place to implant and at the same time they cause issues with bleeding because they infringe upon the lining of the uterus Which is called endometrium, which is what gets secreted every month as your period Okay, at least that much I meant by biology It's quite a shade, shade upon any, I love it just crumbles, crumbles on the wall when it's time for a fee Thank you my biology teacher for your contribution to society Although I am hearing it it might you can actually Confuse it for pregnancy You can't confuse it for pregnancy because it causes abdominal distention, it causes abnormal bleeding, back pain Yes, early in pregnancy you do get such symptoms, but the symptoms are actually very distinct You get heavy menstrual periods, you get bleeding in between periods, you get back pain You get difficulty in urination, difficulty in passing stool, infatility And some women even tend to get recurrent miscarriages Because if the fibroid is seated inside the uterus Then you can imagine that implantation cannot occur, but when implantation does occur the fibroid has occupied a certain amount of space And so it kind of just pushes the pregnancy out Walk that's being territorial in all the wrong ways Okay, so assuming I am patient and then I've just found out okay have fibroids What am I expecting as on my root recovery? How are we going to deal with this now? Okay, so fibroids can sometimes be an incidental finding You might just go in for an ultrasound for something completely different Maybe you just got pregnant or maybe you've had other issues And then now you go in and do an ultrasound and they find fibroids So ideally if your fibroids are not causing you symptoms that is if you're not getting any pain You're not getting any abnormal menstrual bleeding You're not having difficulty in conception Most of the time your gynecologist should not interfere with those fibroids if they're not causing any symptoms Or if you found out that you have fibroids and maybe you're just about to become menopausal Then there's no need to sort that out However, if you do have symptoms then the fibroids need to be dealt with depending on what you're trying to achieve So there are those women who are just trying to make the bleeding get better Because the bleeding is very heavy. There are those women who want to get pregnant There are those women who just want that pain to go away There are those women who do not want that kind of distention because it's causing issues with their bladder their rectum So how we deal with them depends on what you're trying to achieve Mainly they're dealt with by surgery So mainly you have to get them removed But that is if you're young if you're looking to get pregnant or if it's causing significant symptoms For those women who are maybe older One of the options is just to remove the uterus entirely And that is called a hysterectomy Yes, but that is for those who've already had their babies who are maybe close to becoming menopausal And whom the fibroids are causing significant symptoms And you know, they feel like maybe it'll be too many years before they become menopausal They don't want to suffer through all those symptoms But for the younger ladies, especially like the 20 to 30 year olds who maybe want to get pregnant And you find this fibroid is sitting inside the cavity of the uterus Then those fibroids need to be removed or maybe this fibroid is blocking one of the fallopian tubes So she's unable to get pregnant and this fibroid definitely needs to be surgically removed Yeah, so most of the time when you're diagnosed with fibroids If they are symptomatic it is likely that you will be having some form of surgery Although there are other ways to treat fibroids as well And and say it's it's I want to say benign. It's it's not cancerous But it's not giving you symptoms. You're not feeling any pain and you know, you decide to just let it chill it want to grow Actually fibroids do grow they increase in size and one of the things that makes them grow is estrogen So fibroids, but my body makes it It's unfortunate. But yes, that's how they grow They do they are predisposed to estrogen in preference to progesterone So that means that when you become an apostle It's likely that your fibroids can shrink Or disappear or stop causing new symptoms But when you're younger and you have lots of estrogen your fibroids can grow They can increase in number And then there are those women who get pregnant when they have a fibroid during pregnancy produce a lot of estrogen And the fibroids can grow during pregnancy for some women they stay the same but for some women they do increase in size Okay, so this Eustrogen tip is kind of making me feel like guys can't get fibroids Because they don't have any Yeah, then they have what's this other one testosterone. Yes, they have testosterone I don't know if I'm going to get it Okay, so it's okay. I tried to find from Facebook. I tried to find what's an order to hashtag this one in the morning We're discussing fibroids how to manage them You know what to do in case you just heard you have fibroids and do not panic you're number one Cyndio. Yeah, so what happens if again, we live in a country where the I I want to say economic situation is a bit Iffy and either you're extremely well off or you are below the poverty line. So what happens if I believe below the poverty line and I find out I have fibroids. How do I get assistance? Okay, so There are certain medications that can help your fibroids However, those medications are called g and g n r h agonists Those medications are reserved for people who are going to have surgery So basically what the medication does it helps your fibroid to shrink And the reason why we give them is because When we do the surgery we want that to be minimal bleeding So that's the reason why we give the this particular kind of medication This medication does not actually cure the fibroid and when the medication is stopped the fibroid regrows So, uh, basically if you're living below the poverty line and you have fibroids Um, one of my suggestions would be to visit a government facility There are very many government facilities with very qualified doctors who are able to remove the fibroids Especially if it's very symptomatic Because one of the things I forgot to mention is that when fibroids cause a lot of bleeding they cause anemia Yeah, and anemia is you know Basically a deficit in your hemoglobin. So in your the the blood that you have And so that can cause a lot of symptoms. It can cause lethargy tiredness dizziness So you're not able to function So below the poverty line you need to work you need to be able to sustain yourself And then this anemia comes in and the bleeding is there and that's aside from all the other issues that are That are happening But government facilities are actually very qualified in doing the surgery to remove fibroids, which is called myomectomy Um, so I feel like that is one of the ways in which a woman who has fibroids who Maybe cannot afford to be in a high end facility can be able to still help herself Oh, okay. Thank you so much guys for watching. I can see someone has just joined our health class We have just discussed this but I can ask her again for on your behalf So they asked about ladies who have enlarged uterus mistaken for pregnancies and how to handle it So previously we said that fibroids actually can grow to to a size that makes you look like you're expecting Yeah, but you're not so how do you deal with a stigma first of all? What is the problem? How do you deal first with the stigma and maybe If you can you choose to not remove and they look that big Yes, you can choose not to remove of course all patients have their choice. There are many women who say I don't want them removed. There are many women who say I do not want a hysterectomy Even though i'm done having my children. I don't want any organ removed from my body. So yes, of course it is a patient choice Um stigma is one of those things that's really hard to deal with It's already hard being female Exactly. So like for example when women come after having a baby and you're trying to you know get yourself back into shape Do you have kids? I do You don't look it. Oh my gosh. Okay. I have a daughter So yeah, so when you're trying to get yourself back into shape It can be quite difficult and already and one of the things that women really complain about is the distended abdomen So um with fibroids, that's the same thing, especially if they're very large the stigma is there I think mainly um family support social support because you know at the same time we don't want to go around telling people No, i'm not pregnant. It's exhausting So but I think lots of support um can make home and feel you know confident because you know you have this condition As you make as you take your time to make the decision as to whether you truly think they need to be removed Or whether you just kind of want to stay because maybe you're close to men or pause or maybe um You just do not want your body interfered with that is also a choice that patients have However, um, it needs to be known that when your fibroids are that big to the point that other people can notice the Distention really something needs to be done about it And the reason is because remember I mentioned that when the uterus gets very large it can press on the ureters When the urine gets stagnant it can cause kidney failure. So that's one of the things The other thing is that when the uterus gets very large It can press on one of the blood vessels that goes to your leg and cause you to get a clot Now when this blood clot dislodges it can be fatal So when your uterus is that large that it's causing significant Distention that other people are noticing you're uncomfortable your gynecologist can see Really you need to do something about it because it could cause other problems So it's not something that you should live with and say, okay. Let me see how the stigma goes It's something that you need to sort out Wow, okay So basically once you've Started your periods you're you're at risk Yes, and especially the girls who start their periods a little bit earlier It's been proposed that they they are at risk of getting fibroids Hey, okay It's breathtaking to imagine how some conditions can affect your whole manner in being the way you think The the way you feel like you should function way is is amazing. Maybe you can conclude What would you like to would you like the youth to understand or not? So I'd like the youth to know that when you do have menstrual symptoms for example, yeah When your periods are too heavy or when your periods are too painful When you're getting too much pain in your back too much pain in your abdomen You need to see your gynecologist. It may not be fibroids But it may be and it may be something that you may be struggling with you see And it's better to speak out If you're young and you're trying to conceive a baby and you don't really know what the issue is Sometimes, you know family can be a bit difficult when you're trying to conceive and even friends And everyone is wondering why aren't you getting pregnant? Maybe you're newlywed This is something that you need to sort out especially any kind of gynecological symptoms see your gynecologist Explain it to them. It's better to be reassured and told you know, there's nothing wrong Then to be told or you know, you have fibroids and you know, they've caused this kind of effects and now This kind of surgery needs to be done. So I'd say listen to your body Visit your gynecologist. Let them know whatever you feel is abnormal gynecologically Would would they hurt if if someone with fibroids would have coitus would that affect them in any way? Okay, it depends on where the fibroids are It's a possibility. It is a possibility. You could have pain during sexual intercourse. Yes Some fibroids are in the cervix even some fibroids are very low in the uterus So that can cause pain during sexual activity. Yes, it's a rare symptom, but it does happen Okay As listen to your body. That's basic Lesson of the class. Sorry. Yes. Hey, whoa, okay At right five for facebook at five two five four channel onto the hashtag is one of the pointy You have been with us on health matters and we've been zooming on fibroids I hope you've learned something if you've taken away a thing or two And I hear we have a very special something to play for you. I check this out