A surgeon and the Founder of Benjamin Olowojebutu Foundation, Dr Benjamin Olowojebutu, says no drug can shrink fibroids in a woman.
Olowojebutu, made this known at a news conference on Saturday in Lagos, adding that Fibroids are non-cancerous abnormal growths that develop in or around the womb (uterus). The surgeon advised women that instead, they should visit a doctor and get examined when they suspect that they might have.
“There are lots of fallacies and superstitious beliefs around fibroids that you can take medicines to shrink or pass it out from the anus; that is what is killing many women today.
“Some women have been taken herbal drugs for years and instead of shrinking the fibroid, it is getting bigger.
“We want to create awareness to let people know that there is help for them,” Olowojebutu said.
He said that his foundation was willing to meet the needs of women who could not afford to pay for surgeries, stressing that the target for 2019 was 1,000 women.
Olowojebutu said that fibroids were very common in African women and also in Nigeria.
He said, however, that the risk of developing fibroids could be reduced if a woman married early and they have a break from menstruating due to pregnancy.
“Women who menstruate early, let us say at 10 years old and you are now 35 years old, that is 25 years of bleeding without a break.
“When there is no break in your menstrual flow, that is, the longer you are menstruating for, the more time you have to stimulate the oestrogen hormone to produce fibroid.
“Women who have many babies may not have fibroid, because there is usually a break; one year of pregnancy and another for breastfeeding, which is two years of break.
“So, the oestrogen hormone cannot stimulate their wombs to grow the fibroids,” he said.
