MEDICAL experts have expressed confidence that the growing menace of non-cancerous benign tumours known as fibroids that occurs in about 75% black women of reproductive age may be about to be addressed following plans to expand the specialist clinic in Lagos. 

Although not all cases of fibroids in Nigeria are diagnosed, available statistics also show that that the ailment affects at least 20% of all women at some time during their life, with women aged between 30 and 50 tipped as the most likely to develop it. However, Dr Felix Ogedengbe, the medical director of Cedarcrest Hospitals, said uterine artery embolisation also called uterine fibroid embolisation (UFE), has rekindled hope of treating the ailment successfully across the world. 

He said the establishment of a medical centre to carryout UFE in Lagos has brought relief to many women in the state and environs. According to Dr Ogedengbe, the new hospital was established in the state to stem the increasing rate of Nigerians travelling out of the country to seek medical treatment. 

Dr Ogedengbe said: “We have believed and continued to believe that Nigerians do not need to go through the rigours and attendant risks of travelling abroad to access high quality healthcare. Having trained and worked in other more advanced parts of the world and seeing that Nigerians form part of the best crop of doctors worldwide, we undertook to come back home to establish Cedarcrest Hospitals to treat ailments such as fibroids and others killing people in the country.” 

He explained that to make the centre big enough to accommodate more victims plans are afoot to expand the 20 bed facility in the specialist hospital to a 100 bed one that can accept helicopters and bring in trauma patients. Across Nigeria, the number of deaths from fibroids that grow from the muscle layers of the uterus has been on the increase, creating worry and anxiety. 

Cases abound of many people who go for treatment and before you know it, they are dead, while others cannot have children due to the menace. Tolani Ayeni for instance, who was married for 12 years, said she had enjoyed marital bliss but suffered from a series of miscarriages brought about by fibroids. 

Ms Ayeni blamed the spontaneous pregnancy losses on several factors until she was diagnosed with fibroid in the uterine cavity, occupying the space meant for the developing foetus. Still under the illusion that she might have been placed under a spell by her enemies, she resorted to visiting prayer centres to solve her problem until eventually she got a medical diagnosis. 

Another victim Clara Amodu, said fibroids is like a death sentence because her marriage to Daniel her heartthrob of many years was annulled and engagements cancelled as a result of the ailment. She added that earlier on a suitor had dumped her simply because she told him she had fibroids. 

A report by a Boston University study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, indicated that hair relaxers which are used by millions of black women, possibly expose them to various chemicals through scalp lesions and burns, may not be unconnected to high incidents of fibroids in black women. According to the study, chemical hair relaxers many black women use to straighten their hair may be linked to the development of fibroids.