Fibroids hair straightener alert – Voice Online

HAIR RELAXERS could be causing higher rates of fibroids among Black women, a study has found.

Relaxers and leave-in conditioners were linked to an increased risk of the more aggressive form of breast cancer at a younger age, according to research by Boston University in the US.

Estrogen hormone compounds contained in some Black hair products were singled out as the culprit.

The link with increased fibroids is also under the microscope, with the Black Women’s Health Study of 23,500 premenopausal women finding that women who used hair relaxers were 17% more likely to develop fibroids compared to women who did not use these products.

While there are not yet any UK studies into this area, the red flag will surely alarm Black women in Britain too.

Fibroids are non-cancerous growths of muscle and fibrous tissue that develop in and around the womb.

The issue with fibroids is not only the disproportionate level of for Black women, but the negative experience such as late diagnosis due to treatment by healthcare professionals.

80% of African-Caribbean women are predicted to suffer from fibroids by the age of 50, in comparison to 70% of white women, NHS research has found.

Celebrities like West End star Beverley Knight have had fibroids removed and singer-songwriter FKA Twigs has also undergone surgery for the condition.

Black British women who are suffering from a debilitating condition called fibroids say they are being ignored by medical experts.

The Voice spoke to several Black women who revealed that fibroids had been ‘missed’ in scans, and their complaints of suffering pain were not taken seriously.

Many women are unaware they have the condition because they do not have symptoms, countless women who have been diagnosed experience painful or heavy periods, abdominal and back pain, constipation and pain or discomfort during sexual intercourse.

Some medical experts are now calling for more research into the health phenomenon, and for Black women who are desperate for answers to receive better healthcare.  

The exact cause of fibroids is unknown but there have been some links to the hormone estrogen, and chronic stress levels due to racism.

Vanessa Davis, 25, had been relaxing her hair for at least six years before stopping altogether at age 20 and happened to be diagnosed with early stage fibroids in March 2023. 

The office worker told The Voice: “I had no idea at the time, of course, that there was going to be research that speculated that relaxers were linked to fibroids, otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have started using it. 

“Knowing that I’m most likely genetically predisposed because that’s also something that’s speculated as well that there’s a genetic component when it comes to fibroids in Black women. 

“I know other family members that have experienced fibroids have also happened to be relaxing their hair as well.”

Vanessa has also battled the condition adenomyosis since she was 19-years-old; a debilitating condition which causes the lining of the womb to bury into the muscular wall of the womb which makes periods unbearable.

She says she now lives in constant anxiety and fear about how the recent diagnosis of fibroids will begin to affect her health with her already painful monthly cycle. 

She admits she was warned by medical professionals years before that she would develop the problematic health issue which was only discovered by chance while medics probed her condition with adenomyosis.

She says she “demanded” to be referred because she was still in excruciating pain despite being prescribed painkillers. 

“I was just told that it was normal to be in that much pain [for adenomyosis] and I never thought that it was; it was always going to go down as you get older but the pain got worse. I started to develop a lot of nausea, over the years tiredness or fatigue,” she recalls. 

“So I started to have scans. The first scan I had, I was about 19 years old…the doctor said we can’t see anything for now, including fibroids. 

“We can’t see any fibroids. But I guarantee you within the next five to 10 years, you’re going to have fibroids, because that’s something that we notice in Black women.”

Vanessa, who says she had her pain dismissed and endured three scans before finally having her adenomyosis officially diagnosed, recalls how doctors told her they didn’t know why she and countless other Black women are more prone to falling victim to fibroids.

In research published in the Carcinogensis Journal by Oxford University in 2021, it found that Black women who used lye-based hair relaxers at least seven times a year for over 15 years or more had around a 30% increased risk of developing breast cancer, with some speculating that the risk could also be associated with fibroids. 

Lye, also known as sodium hydroxide, is a heavy-duty chemical used to unblock drains which can be found in popular hair brands with products targeting Black women and girls. 

Campaigners in the UK and US have called on the beauty giants to stop using the dangerous chemical, which can even be found in hair products which claim to have no lye, but still harbour harmful hydroxides including calcium hydroxide and lithium hydroxide.

Dr Annabel Sowemimo, a specialist in sexual and reproductive health, told The Voice that there could be multiple reasons as to why statistics point towards why Black women are disproportionately impacted. 

“A lot of our data comes from the US with those prevalent statistics, and we do think it relates here [in the UK] because we do see a lot more Black women with fibroids in our practice,” she explains. 

“So, this could be due to a range of reasons. There may well be a genetic component to why there’s more of a high rate of fibroids.

“More recently, there was a study done that looked at the use of relaxers, which we know is a practice that lots of Black women globally utilise to keep their hair straight due to standards around beauty, what is professionalism.”

Dr Annabel says that fibroids in Black women could be linked to a diet containing high oestrogen levels, cultural practices and low vitamin D levels commonly found in people with darker skin and “wear and tear” on the body due to racism.

She adds: “There’s other people [researchers] that have looked at things like the concepts of weathering and allostatic load [the body denigrating], which is how stress related circumstances can also lead to people having higher risk of certain diseases that’s obviously looked at in relation to things like blood pressure and stroke. And people haven’t really underpinned how that would work necessarily in relation to fibroids.”

Despite the prevalence of the issue, Black women say they are also battling to get appointments with their doctors and their symptoms of fibroids are often ignored or misdiagnosed – which is putting their health at risk.

Natalie Meagan-Blake, 39, is a Duty Manager in the leisure industry from West London, who lives with both fibroids and adenomyosis.

She was also diagnosed with its “sister” condition endometriosis – a long-term full body disease where the tissue which is similar to the lining of your womb grows in other places around the body.

The condition affects people of all ethnicities but research has shown Black women are 50 per cent less likely to be diagnosed than white women. 

A total of 190 million people have the disease globally and on average it takes eight years to be diagnosed. 

Ms Meagan-Blake is of Bajan, Jamaican and Irish heritage, told The Voice she believes her background has played a part in how she has been treated by medical professionals. 

She says she’s constantly demanding further scans and investigations into her health and is not listened to. 

She said: “On a day-to-day basis, it’s difficult, I’m constantly sending emails and making phone calls to be heard.

“If I didn’t push for an MRI after my last surgery they wouldn’t have found what they have found now – which has led to I need to have another surgery ASAP.”

Ms Meagan-Blake revealed she has been forced to change her GP three times.

She said: “In my early thirties that’s when the race played more of a part in me being diagnosed.

“They looked at me as a Black woman and made the assumption ‘she’s got fibroids.’”

Ms Meagan-Blake said this assumption did not take into consideration her other symptoms or the fact that her mother – who is White – also suffers from endometriosis.

The 39-year-old says she felt like doctors did not actually “see her” but just saw a black woman and assumed her pain threshold was much higher than that of a white woman.

“They look at you like you’re ok, you are a strong black woman, you have got this, you don’t need pain killers,” she said.

Dr Christine Ekechi, a Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, believes that patients who are Black women struggle to access appointments and therefore see delays in their diagnoses. 

However, she warns people need to be “careful” with how we frame race disparities around this issue.

“Black and Asian people are more likely to live in areas that have limited GPs. So therefore, they will have difficulty getting access to their GP to then mention the symptoms that they’re having, rather than people that live in rich areas,” she says.

“What causes difficulty in access is more about deprivation and class. Then, when we’re looking at lower class and lower deprivation, Black and Asian people are over represented in those areas.”

Black and ethnic minority women are more likely to develop larger sized fibroids, however, it is unclear why and makes treatment options for the conditions limited, says Dr Ekechi. 

A hysterectomy is often the last and most drastic option for fibroid treatment which is the removal of the uterus. 

There are three main types of fibroids including submucosal fibroids which can cause heavy, irregular bleeding, a swollen abdomen and even infertility. 

For Ms Meagan-Blake, who also has polycystic ovary syndrome, she says her fibroids are not “growing dramatically,” but can’t predict the future of her condition. 

The women’s health advocate has had four surgeries related to her reproductive health and is expected to have a fifth one later this year.

While Vanessa lives with the constant fear of how her fibroids diagnosis may begin to impact her as they grow in size.

Dr Ekechi says women of all ethnicities struggle to be believed by health professionals about their reproductive health, but says that more research into why fibroids are more likely in Black women can only be funded from what “creates the biggest noise from the public sector”.

For both Vanessa and Meagan-Blake, they want the Black community to be persistent in asking questions if they feel something is not right with their health.

Meagan-Blake added: “Ask for your medical records, some things are written in your medical notes that you don’t get told in your appointments.

“Ask for your surgery notes and if they take photos get those pictures.”

Read more > Campaigners call on L’Oréal to remove lye from hair relaxers due to cancer risk