Dawn Heels, 41, discovers 16 fibroids after years of pain and misdiagnosis
Berkshire: Dawn Heels, a 41-year-old mum, had been living with severe menstrual pain for years. She often felt like she was just going through the motions, smiling while in agony. After countless visits to her GP, she was told to manage her pain with ibuprofen and a hot water bottle. But that wasn’t enough.
After finally getting an ultrasound, she was shocked to learn she had 16 fibroids, one as big as a grapefruit. “I was completely shocked,” she said. “Seeing those fibroids made me realize why I was in so much pain.”
Dawn’s journey began in her teens when she first experienced severe menstrual pain. It got so bad that she had to plan her life around her periods. “I dreaded my period. The pain was off the scale,” she recalled. It was a struggle that affected her daily life, often leaving her bedridden for days.
In 2016, she sought medical help, but her GP dismissed her concerns, saying fibroids were common and nothing to worry about. “I believed him and just kept using ibuprofen,” she shared. But the pain persisted, and she felt like she was living a lie, pretending everything was fine.
Now, as an advocate for women’s health, Dawn is raising awareness about fibroids. She believes more research is needed to understand why women develop them. “We need to know the how’s and why’s,” she emphasized. “There’s so little research on this, especially in the UK.”
Janet Lindsay, CEO of Wellbeing of Women, echoed her sentiments, highlighting that two in three women will experience fibroids in their lifetime. She stressed the importance of education for GPs and empowering women to seek help.
Dawn’s story is a reminder of the importance of listening to women’s health concerns and the need for better understanding and treatment options for conditions like fibroids.
