Women’s Health
There are a lot of things that we discuss and chit chat about with our horse friends. Mostly, we talk about the horse topic items that we have in common, of which there are a million subjects. How about talking about riding lessons, dressage scores, quality of leather, best winter gloves…. I bet I can have a conversation about any single horse item that anyone brings up! But, what we don’t talk about is also pretty interesting.
Women’s Health. In my case….Fibroids.
Now, if I brought up that word in context of a horse health condition…. On and on we could go about ultrasounding, shrinking, growing, removing… But, as a woman’s health condition, that is one subject not usually talked about in the barn aisle. I’m going to suggest that maybe we should.
I work in a female dominated horse sport. And statistics show that 80% of women have fibroids by the time they are 50. They might not have any symptoms, but if you do have symptoms, they are noticeable to oneself. I am surrounded by women in my life, and it turns out that I was struggling through my fibroid symptoms alone when I didn’t need to. It turns out I could have talked to anyone around me and had a “Me too!” type of conversation. And I wish that I had known this sooner.
Last fall, I got a CT scan at the hospital when I got bucked off and broke 6 ribs, broke my collar bone and separated my shoulder. Yes, ouch. The CT scan revealed that I also had fibroids large enough on my uterus that the doctors took the time to point them out. After that, I felt like I had aliens in me. Some people live with them and others, like me, decide that they need to go.
I don’t really want to discuss the medical side of the fibroids, but I do want to talk about the horse riding side of the issue. Sometimes it is easiest to not discuss private medical things that affect your riding. But, ever since this diagnosis, I am very much enjoying talking to other women about it. I now have a laugh with other riders, both professional and amateur, and share our common complaints and can ask questions about our experiences. And that is helping me through this healing process.
Riding is hard enough, but when you are worried about pain, discomfort or peeing (yes!) while riding, then things start to get even harder. I felt myself not training on horses as long or hard as I should because it was not a good day for me. I also felt myself shrinking away from challenges because I knew that it would hurt my lower back or be embarrassing. I now know that a majority of women have experienced what I have lived through and I’m not alone. Let’s start a conversation.
I’m out of the fibroid closet. And office hours are open.