Changing the narrative about Fibroids: Kabugho’s experience

In 2013, Sylvia Kabugho 35 at the time, realised she had fibroids. She experienced heavy periods and a lot of pain during ovulation. When the pain intensified in May,  she sought medical attention from Alcomed Medical Services.

"When the doctor examined my tummy, he asked whether I was pregnant but I was not," Kabugho said.

Dr Moses Arinaitwe, a general health practitioner in Kasese, recommended a computed tomography (CT) scan. The radiologist while handing her the results said, “Your uterus is full of fibroids and that is why you have been struggling to get pregnant”.

Dr Arinaitwe, he explained to her that the only option was surgery but she declined to it. “I had a fear of hospitals and was scared that I might die during the surgery. It felt like a death sentence," she says.

She then reached out to three of her friends who, surprisingly, also had fibroids. They advised her not to go for surgery because she would die. They recommended herbal medicine or prayers.

“A monthly dose for the herbs cost Shs2m which I could not afford at the time. Another friend offered a cheaper drug which I took, only to learn that it was a mood stabiliser. I went into depression when I stopped taking it,” she recalls.

With all hope gone, four months later, Dr Arinaitwe called her and she went the next day with a hope that he had found a solution to her problem besides surgery. Because she looked stressed, when the doctor inquired, she told him about her friends’ myths about fibroid surgery. 

“He explained about the surgery and the complications that come with any delay in decision making towards it. My worry was if I would have children thereafter but he calmed all my fears and asked me to call him if I had any other questions,” she says.

Kabugho later decided to go for the surgery with the help of her mother and friend who had been through the same, knowing that it was for her benefit. In May 2014, at Kilembe Mines Hospital, she went through the surgery successfully.

“After the decision to go for the surgery, I stopped discussing the issue with negative friends. I called them two weeks after the surgery and a few months later they also did the surgery, motivated by my experience,” she said.

Life after

At the time Kabugho realised she had fibroids, she had been in a five-year relationship which ended because of the myths surrounding fibroids and surgery. Her boyfriend was convinced that after a fibroids surgery, one cannot conceive. 

Her sisters were worried about her condition but her mother was there to encourage her. “My mother said it was a simple condition that many women go through. She emphasised that the solution was surgery and highly doubted the other options,” she said.

After the surgery, Kabugho felt the need to share her experience with other women. “But every time I talked about it, people asked me why I talked about such a shameful issue in public. To many people, fibroids is a ‘shameful' thing and I wanted to change the narrative,” she says.

One day, while she was socialising with a group of people, she talked about it. A friend pulled her aside asking why she talked about it in public .

“After that outing one lady came to me and said she had had fibroids for three years but was afraid of the surgery. Two men also reached out to me saying their wives had fibroids. I talked to them and encouraged them to undergo the surgery but also consult their doctors for professional advice,” she said.

Fortunately, in 2017, Kabugho gave birth to her first son and in 2020,  she got another. Although she has had her babies through C-section, she has had no complications after or during pregnancy.