African American Women And Uterine Fibroids: Why More Awareness Is Needed To Overcome This Health Disparity

African American women are nearly three times more likely to develop uterine fibroids and suffer with severe symptoms like heavy menstrual bleeding, anemia, and pelvic pain. From interfering with daily activities to negatively affecting intimate relationships, fibroids have a much more dramatic impact on black women in comparison to women of other races. Given these realities, many are left questioning why fibroid research has lagged in the past and what's being done now to overcome this all-too-common health disparity. "One of the issues with fibroid research is that, because it's built as a disease process that mostly affects black women, in the sphere of research there just aren't that many people who will consider it an immediate problem they face every day like heart attack or stroke," explained Dr. Janice M. Newsome, MD, Interventional Radiologist, Assistant Professor of Radiology at Emory University, and Director of Interventional Services at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta, Ga. And studies show, when it comes to racial diversity, fibroid research has taken a backseat. To examine racial diversity in fibroid clinical studies, Taran and a team of researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., reviewed available literature between 2000 and 2006. The results may surprise you. Their analysis showed that more than 75 percent of fibroid studies didn't even report race. Most of the studies that did look at race were based exclusively on African American w...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news