DoctorOz: Understanding Fibroids: Bloating, Pain, and What You Need to Know

Are you feeling bloated, crampy, or constipated for no reason? It could be because of one of these in your uterus. They're called fibroids. Millions of women, they have them growing inside their bodies right now and not even know it. Fibroids are tumors that made of smooth muscle cells that grow on around a woman's uterus, right? They can grow as a single nodule by themselves or in clusters. Lots of them group together like grapes. Now, they're usually non-cancerous, but if you don't manage them, they can cause severe pain or even infertility. Someone who knows us all too well is Emmy award-winning journalist and co-host of Entertainment Tonight, Nichelle Turner. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me, really. I'm really honored to be here and so excited to talk about this, finally. Well, I appreciate your openness. Now, over the last 10 years, you've had three procedures. We're going to get into that in some detail, but what was your first sense something was wrong? Well, it started when I first started having my period. At that point, I didn't know that something was actually wrong. I always had heavy periods, cramping, times when it was debilitating, like really just needed to be curled up in a ball. I just thought that was normal. I thought that's what a normal menstrual cycle was. It was not looking back. I was already having symptoms way back when. It wasn't until I about 35, 10 years ago, I noticed my stomach protruding and I could feel masses on my stomach. I could actually see them moving around. I had no idea. I was scared. I didn't know if it was cancer. I didn't know what was happening. I went to the doctor and they said, we think that you have fibroids. Let's go get this checked out. Probably stung you. A lot of women have fibroids. They're afraid, obviously. Infertility issues can sometimes come up. It can affect them. You were 35 years of age. 35 years old. What went through your mind? That. Of course, absolutely. At that time, I had a different OBGYN than I do now. I was told then, listen, you need to decide now if you want to have children because if you have this surgery, you're not going to be able to have kids. At 35 years old, that gobsmacked me. I went through a mourning process thinking that I would never be a mother. The OB I have now says, I can't believe someone told you that. I didn't know then to ask questions, Dr. Oz. I didn't know to get a second opinion. I didn't know to dig deeper. A lot of women are afraid to talk about it, which is why it's so important that you're coming up. I appreciate you speaking to it. It's something that paralyzes us, especially when it's a problem that's addressable like this. You had an open myomectomy. Describe that. They literally open your belly. Basically, yeah. I have a huge scar on my abdomen, bigger than most of my mommy friend's C-section scars. It really goes from end to end. They open you up. They cut through the muscle, your abdominal muscle, and then they remove the fibroids. The recovery is tough. It's tough. It's about a six-week recovery because basically you have no core anymore. They did all that entry stuff, but then they just carved out the individual fibroids. Did you ever think of having a hysterectomy? Was that discussed at all? That was recommended to me this last time. It's tough to even talk about because psychologically, I think at 46, if I have a hysterectomy, then it is really over for me. My mother also had a hysterectomy because my mother had fibroids as well. At the time, I was a kid. I didn't know it. I thought she had had a hysterectomy at 38 years old. She just told me this morning, I was 28 years old. She didn't have any other options. All they said was, you got to have a hysterectomy. Do you want to have more kids? We're taking your female organs. I'm glad that I know this now. This last time, I was able to really get a second opinion, to talk to people, to dig deeper, to ask questions. When my doctor said, you should think about a hysterectomy, I did go get a second opinion. That doctor said, why don't we just hold on that a little more? It's not the worst thing to say, because this is your third time, but why don't we hold off on this a little more and try one more myomectomy? Hopefully, they won't come back. What were the symptoms you were having that prompted yet another operation? They were a little different than before. The first time, I really had a stomach protrusion. The second time, it was that as well. The third time, I had a little bit of a stomach protrusion. I thought it was more like gaining COVID pounds. Because it was during the pandemic, I really started feeling like, what's happening? I had more back pain, a lot of back pain. I had to urinate frequently because the fibroids were sitting on my bladder, sitting on my bowels. All of that was a problem. I felt terrible. I knew something was happening. I knew that it was this again, because I was feeling the same way. I thought, gosh, now I have to go through this one more time. You talked about the fact that so many women are afraid, and there's a shame with it. There really is. That's what I want to get across, because I know if I've been in this situation, so many other women have. You worry about having accidents. I've had them where you bleed through your clothes, and there's nothing you can do. I know that feeling when it's just the rush inside your body, and you think, oh my God, here this goes again. What am I going to do? I was at work. We were at the Super Bowl in Miami of 2020, and we were doing our show on a boat. Beautiful, such a fun time, having a great time. All of a sudden, I felt the rush. I said, I don't know what to do. I'm on a boat here. I'm at work with my colleagues, and I'm about to have an accident. It was mortifying. So many women go through that, and they are afraid to talk about that. What I do want to say to everyone is it happens to me. It happens to 80% of women, especially women of color. You're not alone. We're all out here trying to just figure out how to make our bodies healthier. Let me explain why that happens, how you actually lose control of your most precious organs. In total, you had 24 fibroids removed. Let me show everyone a picture of one of them. You can see it's pretty large. In fact, that's about the size of a grapefruit. I had nine of those large ones, 15 smaller ones, and the wild thing is... You might notice, by the way, there's nine grapefruits here. I see them here. Imagine this inside of that belly. Inside my body. Well, I thought in return for your honesty with the audience, I'd be honest with you. This is a real uterus. You probably... If you move your eye over, you'll see this, because I specifically brought this one for you. This is the normal uterus. You put your gloves on. Oh, my gosh. The normal uterus is fairly small, so that's normal. This is someone who's got just a couple fibroids. I want you to feel that and describe that to everybody, that fibroid, fibroid, fibroid. There are a bunch in there. Oh, yeah. I mean... Oh, my... Ah, this is what was... I almost want to cry, like feeling this and touching this, knowing that this was what was inside my body and this is what was supposed to be happening. They're like rocks. Yeah. If there's something else, you may not... Wow. I mean, as opposed to this, which is, you know... Wow. It's a gentle little sponge. This is not just like a rock, but it's invading all of you. Yes. It gets pretty heavy, too. It definitely does. I mean, when they took these last ones out, I mean, you know, my doctor said they took about six or seven pounds out of me, out of my body. Oh, my God. You got to get an amputation. I mean, you know... Took those COVID pounds off, that's right. The crazy thing is that 80 to 90 percent of black women over the age of 50 have fibroids. Absolutely. You have a family history. Your mom had fibroids. My cousin also had fibroids, had a hysterectomy as well. And you're right. And I think that is one of the most disturbing things for me, because when you hear that number, 80 percent... If something affects 80 percent of a population, you would think there would be some action. There's no funding for this. There's no legislation for this. There's very little research on what causes them, what keeps causing them to grow. And I think that's a travesty. I think there really needs to be a message sent to Congress as well that, you know, this is plaguing a big percentage of our population. We have to do something to figure out what's going on. Glad you're talking about it. Thank you so much. All right, coming up, Michelle's biggest worry about her prognosis, plus the signs you need to look out for if you have fibroids. Everyone at home watching, I want you to listen closely, because one in every three women will have fibroids at some point in their life. And if it's not you, it might be your daughter, your sister, your mother, your best friend. Michelle Turner is back sharing her story, a cautionary tale that she's opening up about today in hope that it will help others. She's had three surgeries over the past 10 years. Michelle, this one over the summer was the most extensive of them all. Are you able to do most of the things you could do before? Now I am. I mean, it actually still... I just started kind of working, back working out, because I decided to go through a complete like body scan, try to figure out if it's something that I was eating or whatever. I don't know what causes them to grow. So I just kind of started working back out. It's still hard for me to do crunches. I still get tender. Crunches. That's asking a lot of your body. Let's take a step back. I want to give everyone the warning signs that no woman should ignore. First off, painful periods and cramping can happen. Increased bleeding. Frequent urination is also a problem and sometimes get uncontrollable because the tumors are on top of the bladder. Constipation. I had all of these. Every single one of these. And the pain. Yes. All of it. All of it. And the pain, like you... It's wild because I actually dealt with it for several months. I was recommended to have the surgery several months before, but like so many women and like we do, I say, but I'm so busy. I have this, I have this. Trying to make time for yourself and your health, you have to do it. If that's... If nobody hears anything else, I would say, make time for yourself, make time for your health and listen to your body. My body was telling me and you put it away, but listen to your body because your body will never fail you when it's telling you something's wrong. So it's unclear why women get fibroids. It's unclear why black women get so many fibroids and why they come back. So come up, we'll have a seat to finish talking about it because I want to take two seconds more of your time to go through this. The possibility of fibroids... No, I will be here all day talking about this, Dr. Oz. But the big question that I'm thinking through is the possibility that you could have more fibroids. You've already had several procedures for them and your uterus is still there. Do you worry that you'll have recurrence? Every day. I mean, it's borderline obsessive, really. I mean, every day I'm feeling, I'm looking in the mirror, I'm trying to see if anything could come back. I mean, again, my OB said, I do think we have them, but you don't really know. He's like, I don't think they'll come back again, but you don't know. And I will say, as tough as it is, I did make the decision if they do come back again, I will have to have a hysterectomy. I can't go through a fourth surgery like this and then not knowing afterwards. But I just want people after me to have some answers. I mean, we deserve it. We deserve to have answers. We deserve to figure out what's going on in our bodies, why these are triggered, why they grow. We just deserve to know and be healthy and be happy about it. Last word to the audience. What's your message for them? You know, this is the first time, Dr. Azad, I've ever publicly talked about this because there was so much shame before. People would write in and ask if I was pregnant on the show and things like that because my stomach was protruding. So to have the opportunity to come here and talk to you about this for the very first time, because I know your viewers rely on you for this information. I just appreciate it. I really do. All right. Thank you for trusting me. They will carry your message forward. I promise you that. Thank you. God bless you and the show. Thank you.