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During Thursday’s episode of The Talk, the discussion was about fertility issues. The conversation was inspired by 29-year-old actress Emma Roberts, who is pregnant now, sharing how she had to get her eggs frozen in her late 20s after endometriosis impacted her fertility. The hosts and guest hosts shared their stories and those of people they know who have dealt with fertility issues or were made to feel like they wouldn’t be able to have children because of their age or past uterine diseases.

After Sharon Osbourne talked about a woman she knows who had her first child at 50, Eve felt comfortable sharing her own story.

“Hearing that for me Mrs. O, that gives me so much hope,” she said. “I think as women we’re always told when you reach a certain age, ‘You’re too old. You should have done this then.'”

The rapper, actress and TV host said she’s been doing some reading, specifically of a book called It Starts with the Egg to educate herself. She also revealed that she took a big step earlier this year of having a myomectomy to help get rid of fibroids, and in turn, improve her fertility.

“For me, I’m 42 now. My Husband and I, we’ve been trying and trying and trying and trying,” she said. “We’ve been doing certain things and for me, I understand where Emma was coming from with the endometriosis because at the beginning of the year, you ladies know…I had a procedure called a myomectomy that gets rid of fibroids.”

The star said she was sharing her story in the hopes of helping other women so they can speak up to their doctor if they’re dealing with similar circumstances that could have greater consequences than we all realize.

“I used to have these horrible periods. And I’m only saying this to say, there’s a lot of women out there that think, we were told that periods are supposed to be painful. They’re not,” she said. “Go to your doctor, and if they don’t believe you, go to another doctor.”

These types of messages are very important to hear, and I say that from experience. If more and more women in the public eye and in my everyday life hadn’t come forward with their own reproductive health issues, I would never have had an inkling that I was suffering from fibroids and advocated for myself to get an MRI to prove it.

Ahead of that discovery, I’d spent a couple of years trying to get pregnant, which was a complete mind warp after working so hard before I got married to not get pregnant. But after more than a year with no success, I sought out help and found out I had a very complicated fibroid, a submucosal one. I was encouraged to get a myomectomy. When I scheduled my procedure, I was shocked to find out weeks before the date that I was miraculously pregnant. Because of that, I thought maybe my fibroid had not been that big of a deal after all.

And then I miscarried.

It was a brutal time. A year later, and with a new doctor (like Eve), I got a laparoscopic myomectomy done after I was told that I miscarried because my fibroid was sucking up everything the baby would have required and was too much in the way for conception to happen again. So I had it removed, along with a few others the surgeon found. After the fact, I was told that during surgery they found endometriosis as well. Thankfully, my doctor removed what she could of that on top of my fibroids. A little over a year later, I delivered my first child via C-section.

Women who shared their stories, in the press and personally with me, gave me the inspiration to know that one day I would conceive because they did, no matter their age, number of fibroids or circumstances. Eve is feeling that same wave of hope now. If people hadn’t shared their experiences, I would have just continued assuming I had a heavy, clotting period like every other Black woman I knew wearing overnight pads during the day and asking for ibuprofen to get through work.

It was one of the best decisions I made, not only because of the child I now have, but also because I no longer wake up in the wee hours of the morning with cramps and numb legs because of my fibroids and endometriosis. Granted, both could return, but at least from here on out, I finally know what I’m dealing with.

So kudos to Eve for not being afraid to share her story, or to hope. Someone will certainly benefit from her journey. Perhaps they too will go to a doctor, or maybe two, to finally get the answers they need.

 

Check out other well-known women who’ve opened up about their own issues with fibroids, endometriosis and other uterine diseases/issues and how that affected their fertility and day-to-day life by hitting the flip: 

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Porsha Williams

The RHOA star dealt with fibroids that caused her to miscarry in the past, and that impacted her pregnancy while carrying daughter PJ.

“I’ve had a miscarriage before in my past, which I’ve also been open about because I suffer with fibroids and had to have a myomectomy,” she told PEOPLE in 2019 while announcing her pregnancy. She was briefly hospitalized while pregnant due to her uterine fibroids. “So just the fear of, ‘Is the baby going to be okay? Will I make it full term?’ All those questions that you ask if you’ve had a miscarriage before.”

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