0:24

Welcome to Power For The Podcast

0:27

. My name is Shalonda Carlisle

0:29

and we also have Dr

0:31

Bianca Bulder , and today we

0:33

have a wonderful guest

0:35

, and May is

0:38

actually Mental

0:41

Health Awareness Month , it's

0:43

actually Maternal Mortality

0:46

Month , it is

0:48

Mother's Day . It has a lot of different

0:50

educational awareness month , but

0:53

one of the topics that I thought

0:55

would be really good to showcase

0:58

and bring more awareness to is

1:00

frybroids , so we

1:02

have a frybroid

1:05

advocate today . Janetra

1:07

Nicole Robinson is a resourceful

1:09

and devoted independent educational

1:12

consultant with vast leadership

1:14

experience with a rich history of

1:16

success , advocating for the adoptions

1:19

of the right teaching strategies

1:21

to improve students' academic performance

1:24

and low performing schools

1:26

. With a background in education

1:28

and finance , she has taught

1:31

previously an online education

1:33

policy class to certify

1:35

educators to increase their understanding

1:38

of different theories and concepts

1:41

in this area and train

1:43

them on how to formulate and

1:45

implement appropriate education

1:47

policies . She is also a

1:49

former public school classroom

1:51

teacher , certified in elementary

1:54

education , k-6

1:56

and business education , 7-12

1:59

. Janetra currently works as

2:01

a full time capacity building

2:03

assistant specialist with My

2:05

Brother's Keeper Incorporated , a

2:08

national nonprofit community

2:10

based organization seeking

2:12

to reduce health disparities

2:14

throughout the United States through

2:16

programs meant to ensure health care

2:19

equity and promote the well being

2:21

of minority and marginalized

2:23

populations . In collaboration

2:26

with CDC , janetra oversees

2:29

the coordination , planning and delivery

2:31

of a variety of capacity building

2:33

, assistant activities through

2:35

evidence based interventions and

2:38

public health strategies . Janetra

2:41

is also the director of community events

2:43

with Jason Quinn State Farm

2:45

. Born and raised in Northwest Jackson

2:48

, mississippi , where she has lived

2:50

for over 40 years now , genetra

2:52

understands the problems facing minority

2:54

groups and children in this

2:56

area and has devoted her life

2:59

to advocating for justice and equity

3:01

. And a stute organizer , distinguished

3:04

educator , event planner and graphic

3:06

designer , genetra is an active

3:09

member of her church , new Mount

3:12

Zion Missionary Baptist Church

3:14

, where she served as the president

3:16

of the Bible class , and has also

3:18

been the chair of Women's Day and

3:20

Black History Month . She's also

3:23

a member of Stilettos

3:25

on the pavement , a women

3:27

in business networking group seeking

3:29

to unite women engaged

3:32

in business within the community

3:34

. Her interests include going to wine

3:36

tasting events , traveling

3:38

, spending time with her parents

3:40

and her spoil pub

3:42

, chichi . Welcome

3:45

, mr Genetra . I had the pleasure of

3:47

meeting Genetra when

3:49

she was a teacher at

3:51

one of the elementary schools and

3:54

she had a passion in making

3:56

sure that her kids

3:58

had everything that they needed to

4:00

be successful in that school setting . She

4:03

would always get school

4:05

supply , get donations . She

4:08

really wanted to make sure those kids

4:10

had everything that they needed to

4:13

have academic success . So

4:15

I know her from that great advocate

4:17

for kids and she's also a

4:19

great advocate for people

4:21

who live with fibroids

4:23

. Today we want to talk

4:26

about you know . You

4:28

know what's fibroids and

4:30

some of the different things

4:32

that individuals that have

4:35

fibroids face

4:37

. Genetra , would you like to share

4:39

your personal story with fibroids

4:42

?

4:43

Sure , I will share my personal story . It's

4:45

like where do I begin ?

4:50

Tell me what fibroids are , because a lot

4:52

of people may not know what fibroids are .

4:56

Okay , so simply , fibroids

4:58

are just benign tumors or growths

5:00

that grow inside of a woman's uterus

5:02

and they are non-cancerous

5:05

. That's what fibroids are . My

5:07

personal story , and I often

5:09

wonder , like , where does my personal story with

5:11

fibroids begin ? because I

5:14

had fibroids a long

5:16

time without knowing I had fibroids

5:18

, because I

5:21

was exhibiting so many different

5:23

symptoms which I

5:25

thought time

5:27

was just a normal , just

5:30

came with me having a period , i would say , and

5:33

so I just thought things were

5:35

normal because my cycle was heavy

5:37

. I had blood clots

5:39

and this was like more

5:41

than a year's time A lot

5:44

of stomach discomfort

5:47

, heavy pressure in my abdomen , and

5:49

so and I can just that was went

5:51

across a couple of years of what

5:53

not had pain

5:56

in my back , pain in my side

5:58

, and so I probably

6:00

had all the symptoms . I used to go

6:03

to the bathroom all the time and that

6:05

went on and From

6:07

what I can remember , i Know

6:10

, probably starting I

6:12

won't even say starting from as far as I

6:14

can remember back , i'm gonna say maybe like 2010

6:17

, my surgery was in 2015

6:20

, but anyway . So when I

6:22

knew , knew I

6:24

had fibroids , i was diagnosed in 2000

6:26

, early 2015 , i was diagnosed

6:29

, and so what made me

6:31

go ahead and go

6:33

to the doctor and

6:36

Just

6:39

cry for help . I'll say I

6:41

was . I I Was

6:45

dealing with a lot within the last , i'll say

6:47

, 18 months of the year prior . Like

6:50

my dad had a heart attack

6:52

and he went into this , into the hospital

6:54

, he had to have a triple bypass , and

6:56

so , like I was , just I was overly

6:59

tired , i was just weak

7:01

, like to the point where

7:03

I just feel like I was gonna pass out . I

7:06

slept all the time . My

7:08

cycles were really really heavy

7:10

and I just felt I felt

7:12

less than Like

7:15

I just I felt like I just

7:17

had nothing left to give . And then it , and

7:19

then I had like , like really heavy

7:21

clots , like nothing I

7:24

had never seen before . So I

7:26

had a conversation with my OBGYN

7:28

and so She

7:32

was like well , janice , or you know you're not in your 20s

7:34

anymore Or , excuse me , she's like you

7:36

know you're 20s anymore . She's like you know your body's changing

7:38

. And she was like you know , you

7:41

might want to just like lose some weight or whatnot

7:43

, and you know things are probably to

7:45

get better . And I was like , okay

7:47

, but

7:49

uh , you know I'm in the back of my mind . I'm saying

7:51

to myself this thing don't go away when you're

7:53

losing a few pounds , but anyway . So Maybe

7:57

a couple days after that I was like talking to a

7:59

friend girl of mine Who's an who's a nurse , and

8:01

she just happens to be a nurse for an OBGYN

8:04

at the time and I was just telling I was like

8:06

I don't , i don't feel good . I was like I don't feel

8:08

good no day of my life . And

8:11

I was like and if I'm not , if I'm not feeling

8:13

good ? and I was in the klares room , i was telling

8:15

her , if I'm not feeling good , my , my children definitely

8:17

can't get my best . And I just telling

8:19

her what was going on , man , she was like no , she said

8:22

something going on . She was like I'm gonna , i'm

8:24

gonna bring you in to see my doctor

8:26

. She told me to make an appointment And

8:29

she will move me up to that week . So when I came

8:31

in to see her doctor , her

8:34

doctor , uh , she sat down , she talked

8:36

to me and she thought so . She was like you need

8:38

to tell me what's going on . So and I told her , i

8:41

was like you know , i sound having a lot of pub pain

8:43

during my period . I said

8:45

, i said I I'm sleeping

8:47

a lot . I said I'm really tired every

8:49

day I told , i said I could sleep the day

8:51

away . I told her that , um

8:53

, i

8:56

was having really , really heavy clots , and so she

8:58

was like , okay , she said that doesn't sound normal . She

9:01

said , but I'm a chick , yeah . So she laid me back on the

9:03

table . She asked me did I mind , you know , getting a physical

9:07

exam ? I said no . So she did a physical exam on me , you know , um

9:12

, touching my face , touching

9:15

like my thyroid , my

9:17

breast and everything . And then she got down to my , my stomach , and

9:21

she was like , oh , she was like she was like you know what ? I'm gonna send you for

9:23

a bed , i'm gonna send you for a vaginal ultrasound , she said

9:25

. She said I feel like there's something in there

9:27

, and so I said okay

9:29

. I said , well , i can tell you one thing It's not a baby , because

9:31

I have not been able to have six in months at

9:35

all , because my even

9:37

though , like because my period would get

9:39

like really light but it never would completely

9:41

go off . So

9:44

she sent me so a vaginal

9:46

to get a vaginal ultrasound down the hall . And there

9:48

was another thing I had never even heard

9:50

of a vaginal ultrasound before that

9:52

day And my

9:54

previous OBGYN . I had been seeing her

9:56

for years , ever since , you know , i had , you

9:59

know , private insurance , like I , i left the

10:01

health department and started with her

10:03

and I had never , ever had

10:06

one . But anyway , i went down the hall , got

10:09

the ultrasound on and I and I , obviously

10:11

with ultrasound , i knew something was

10:14

going on , because the ultrasound takes , like

10:16

she took like a million pictures . She was taking

10:18

pictures . She had like this little rule

10:20

on the screen And I'm not a

10:22

trained , you know , technician

10:24

but I don't know what she was looking at because I couldn't see

10:26

what . I couldn't see what she was seeing , even

10:29

though we were both looking at the screen . And I asked

10:31

, i was like what do you see ? And she was like you're

10:33

gonna talk to the doctor in just a few minutes . She's like I'm almost

10:36

done . And so when

10:38

we finished , she gave

10:40

all the images to the doctor and , and

10:42

my doctor said she's like janitor

10:44

. She said you

10:46

have something that's really common Amongst

10:49

the african-american women . She said you have

10:51

fibroids and I said , okay

10:53

, i was like what is that

10:56

? because that was the first time I had ever heard of it

10:58

And she told me what it was and

11:00

. I said oh , and I remember picking

11:02

up the phone calling my mom And

11:04

my mom was like oh , i've had those too . I

11:06

was like oh , because me and my mom had never discussed

11:08

it . And so but ? and

11:11

then my doctor said she was like you know . She said

11:13

I will be able to , you know , to

11:15

help you out . She said this was this , is this

11:17

? this won't make your life Visible anymore

11:19

. So she said but I'm happy to see you to get some

11:21

blood work . So she said me immediately get some blood

11:24

work . And she said I want you to come back in

11:26

a few days . So I went downstairs

11:29

, got my blood work done and then I was

11:31

on my way out the door and As soon

11:33

as I pulled out the parking lot , she

11:35

was calling me on the phone . She was like janitor

11:38

, i need you to come back . Well , she said

11:40

, matter of fact , i don't need you to come back . She

11:42

said I need you to go straight to university Hospital

11:45

. And I said why ? she said I need to

11:48

admit you in the hospital . She said because your blood levels are

11:50

so low . She said I'm gonna need

11:52

to give you a blood transfusion . And

11:56

I said uh , i don't know about that

11:58

. I said let's do something else . I said , because

12:00

, as long as I say , as long as I don't pass out . I

12:02

said , uh , let's

12:06

, let's , let's try some alternative . Me that . I said we , if I pass out

12:08

, you have my permission to do anything to keep me alive . I

12:11

said , but , uh , let's try some alternative

12:14

methods to To to be of

12:16

the iron back up in my blood

12:18

. Because that's what she was trying to do . That's because that

12:21

was severely anemic . My

12:23

iron was so , so low

12:25

. So we went through months of What

12:27

did she put me on ? She put me on a prenatal vitamin

12:29

. She

12:33

put me on a very high iron supplement

12:35

And I

12:39

was eating lots of spinach and leafy green vegetables to build the iron

12:41

back up in my blood . So I would be , so I would be ready

12:43

for surgery . She scheduled me for some , some

12:45

more tests . I

12:48

had to have an MRI Come to find out . The reason

12:50

I was having so much pain is because My

12:53

fibroid I

12:57

no-transcript was intramural

12:59

and it was sub mucosal in the uterus

13:01

. I had one large one

13:03

. It was they roughly compared

13:06

it to the size of a soccer ball . It was full of

13:08

fluid and it was leaning

13:10

on my , on my left ovary . So

13:13

that's what was causing

13:15

all the pelvic

13:17

pain and the side pain that

13:19

I was having , and

13:22

so this was

13:24

February and so

13:27

my surgery ended up being in June

13:29

. So it it took that amount of

13:31

time and plus I wanted

13:33

it in the summer anyway , because that's when school

13:35

got out . So it just kind of worked out perfectly

13:38

when

13:40

I had my surgery . So

13:44

after my surgery

13:46

, believe

13:48

it or not , it

13:50

was so , it was so it was . It was not outpatient

13:53

, because because my , my fibro

13:55

was so large , it had to be

13:57

inpatient and I was in

13:59

, for I was in the hospital three days and

14:02

I had to , so

14:04

I had to have pretty much a cesarean

14:06

section And

14:10

so and I had , and they stapled

14:12

me back up and I lost

14:14

like 22 pounds because so

14:16

that's how much fluid the fibroid had Inside

14:20

of it . In

14:23

my recovery time I was

14:25

off work . Well , i was off work the whole summer

14:27

but literally my it took my body over

14:29

a year to heal from from that whole

14:31

surgery , from

14:34

the fibroid surgery . But

14:36

I will say there was probably one of the best surgeries

14:38

I've ever had , because I I felt

14:41

like I had no type of quality of life

14:43

when I had the fibro , as they

14:45

literally was sucking the life out of me . You Feel

14:51

free to ask me any questions that you would like

14:53

. Okay , i wanted to let

14:55

you get through with your story , janita .

14:58

Go ahead .

14:59

Your story is , like many black

15:01

women , that after

15:04

the age of 30 , they

15:07

began to experience

15:09

heavy bleeding . They

15:12

experienced blood clots , they

15:15

experienced the abdominal

15:18

pain , the pelvic

15:20

pain , the rectal

15:22

pain , the pressing on the

15:24

bladder , frequent urination

15:26

, painful during

15:28

sex , bleeding . In

15:30

between their periods , like you mentioned , you

15:33

had some light bleeding that

15:36

never kind of went away . It kind of

15:38

lingers on in between . And

15:41

, like you said , your mom had

15:43

fibroids . When

15:45

you have a genetic component

15:48

of fibroids , most

15:51

women , if their mothers had

15:53

it or their cousins or aunties had it

15:55

, they had it . And

15:57

one of the reasons the doctor initially

16:00

said had loose weight . There's

16:02

a portion

16:04

that if you lose weight it's supposed to help With

16:08

the development of the

16:10

fibroids or to decrease

16:13

. However , fibroids

16:17

every month , they're

16:19

like leeches , they just drain

16:21

blood . So even

16:24

though you were eating the healthy

16:27

, iron-rich foods

16:29

and doing what you needed to do , when

16:31

you have that cycle every month

16:34

or when your

16:36

cycle continues all the way

16:39

throughout the month , your body never

16:41

really catches up And

16:43

so you become severely agonizing And

16:46

then the only option is iron

16:51

transfusions , blood transfusions

16:53

or then surgery . Do

16:56

you think fibroids like every totally

16:58

resolve ? Will they ever be resolved

17:01

, totally resolved ? No

17:04

, no , did your fibroids come

17:06

back ? I don't

17:08

know . I actually just

17:10

had a conversation with somebody today and I said I'm

17:12

going to go back and X to get checked for them . I

17:17

asked that question because most

17:20

often when you have surgery

17:22

, the doctors do an

17:24

amazing job of removing all of the fibroids . However , there are benign

17:26

tumors that over time

17:28

sometimes in a year , sometimes

17:31

two years , sometimes four or five years

17:33

they come back In

17:37

the way you know . They come back . Of course , you

17:39

have those same symptoms that

17:42

fourness in your bladder , that

17:44

fourness in your pelvic area , or

17:46

those blood clots or heavy

17:50

bleeding . It kind of sneaks up on you , right ? The

17:53

heavy bleeding is starting to sneak back up on

17:55

me Exactly .

17:58

So that's why I was asking you about the misconception that you

18:00

have .

18:01

So that's why I was asking you about the

18:03

misconceptions Do they ever really

18:05

resolve ? because a lot of females

18:08

are led to believe that I've

18:10

had this surge , I've had this mild mechemia

18:12

and my fibroids not going to

18:14

come back . Oh no , I would lead to believe

18:16

that my doctor was awesome in educating

18:18

me on it and

18:21

giving me the information that I

18:23

needed . To show him he had to get more information . So

18:26

I'm well aware that they can come back

18:28

and I guess the reason I

18:30

wasn't familiar with them in the first place , So

18:33

like when my mom was diagnosed , hers

18:35

was kind of different . So like my mama

18:37

was like diagnosed with hers

18:40

when she had

18:42

me . So when

18:44

she had me she

18:46

got her tubes tied , but then she also scheduled

18:49

a hysterectomy at the same time for a later

18:51

date , So she didn't have

18:53

any issues with her fibroids

18:55

. Okay , that

18:57

makes sense . So when I was going , through what I

19:00

was going through . My mama didn't know to tell

19:02

me you might have fibroids . You know what I mean

19:04

. Yes

19:06

, i can actually speak to that . I think

19:08

that the majority of

19:11

the women in my family that are all over

19:13

30 have fibroids . It

19:18

is very predominant in the African-American

19:21

female population And

19:26

obesity has been known

19:28

to be a contributing factor

19:30

. You

19:32

typically have problems with fertility

19:35

. Some

19:37

fibroids have even caused miscarriages

19:39

. Fibroids

19:42

have caused women to have

19:45

urinary incontinence

19:47

, painful intercourse

19:49

, lower back pain

19:51

. This unexplained

19:53

That's all they have for me

19:55

when I had it . So

19:58

they have not just surgery

20:00

, which is a mild mechomy , we call that . The

20:02

bikini line , where you say you have the

20:04

caesarean section , is right above the pubic

20:06

area . I

20:08

didn't have that , i had a

20:10

vertical .

20:12

They did a vertical on you .

20:14

Because my size was of a sacrobalt , so

20:16

they had to cut the fibroid out of me . They

20:20

had to cut it in pieces to get it out , because

20:22

it was one solid mass . Some

20:24

women have fibroids and they never know that

20:27

they have fibroids . What do you think

20:29

some strategies not from a medical

20:31

standpoint but from your own experience some

20:33

strategies we can put into place to decrease

20:36

or prevent chances

20:38

of getting fibroids ? Well

20:41

, just okay . So from

20:43

my own research and

20:45

just from me being

20:48

in the field of

20:50

public health now

20:53

, i know this can be

20:56

genetically predisposed

20:58

or whatnot . And so since we know

21:00

that , and we know Obesity

21:02

is

21:05

a factor in all of that

21:07

, we can start off by

21:09

educating pregnant moms how

21:12

important , you know , having a good , clean

21:14

diet for their children are , so

21:21

they can have start off with well-balanced

21:24

meals , because I don't think a lot of parents know

21:26

what well-balanced meals are because they

21:28

want to feed their children or these fast foods

21:30

and they get all this saturated fat

21:32

and everything and their children

21:34

are obese And a lot of times I feel

21:36

like obesity as a child leads

21:39

into , you know , an early onset of puberty

21:41

, which is another thing that they have tied

21:44

to . You know , fibroids as well , i

21:46

also feel like , in addition to that , you

21:50

don't know you have fibroids , but

21:52

when you do have them

21:55

, hormones make them grow , like you

21:57

know birth control hormones , estrogen

21:59

and progesterone . Well

22:02

, opt for a hormone-free

22:04

birth control if possible

22:07

. You know , if there's something you and your doctor

22:09

can agree upon , it works for you so

22:12

that you don't cause your body any more

22:14

harm . Because once I found that out , i ain't been

22:16

on birth control since It

22:19

is . Birth control is not even an option for

22:21

me . Well , some , you know

22:23

some women do for progesterone

22:26

, only birth control . Some

22:29

women do find relief

22:32

from their fibroids , like

22:35

depopovera , but most times

22:37

depopovera causes women

22:39

to gain weight correct , make their bones

22:41

brittle and causes you osteoporosis

22:44

. You have some IUDs

22:46

that are progesterone only

22:49

, but there again you

22:51

have those other side effects

22:54

that most women do not want to deal

22:56

with . So you

22:58

do have some hormone

23:00

options out there , but

23:02

, like you said , a

23:05

hormone-free option would be best

23:07

because it would cause

23:09

a lot of women over

23:11

the age of 30 . And after the age of 30

23:14

, you have other complications , like

23:16

you have high blood pressure

23:18

, you have diabetes and

23:20

hormones we

23:23

all know can cause blood

23:25

clots .

23:26

Right , it causes other things .

23:28

And high blood pressure . Yeah , so if you have

23:30

diabetes , if you have high blood pressure

23:32

, you have other comorbidities . You

23:34

don't want to add hormone

23:37

derivatives to the

23:40

mix , i would say , because it's just going to make

23:42

things kind of worse . Exactly

23:45

From my standpoint

23:47

, i feel like other

23:49

women need to

23:51

have more conversations , but

23:54

our girlfriends

23:56

, our children , like

23:58

our daughters , our granddaughters , and

24:01

talk about those female

24:04

complications

24:07

we had , so

24:09

that we'll know what to

24:12

look for if that does happen

24:14

. Like your mom didn't talk

24:16

to you about it because of course , she had a hysterectomy

24:18

before correct Right , and

24:22

you didn't . So it was an absent thought

24:24

She didn't know what to look for She didn't

24:26

know to talk to you about it . Rather Right

24:29

, so we has . She still

24:32

had her uterus . She probably would have

24:34

talked to you about it because she definitely would have

24:36

had problems with it . Right

24:38

, exactly . And

24:40

see , i don't want to say because I came along so

24:43

much later in life , all

24:45

the women in my family at that point

24:47

, once I grew up , had had hysterectomy

24:50

. So

24:52

there was nobody

24:55

. I was the first one to

24:57

experience fibroids in the manner that

24:59

I did .

25:01

One of the other things that I wanted to

25:03

kind of talk about before

25:05

we end , and we have

25:08

had conversations about it do

25:11

you feel there's enough education or support

25:14

from providers in the community

25:16

? No , Because I know , you

25:18

said . I know we've talked about

25:20

how you may go to one provider

25:22

and they may not

25:25

educate you as they need to

25:27

, but you was fortunate enough to

25:29

have a provider that provided their

25:31

support for you .

25:32

The second provider , not my original

25:34

one . My original one

25:36

did not educate me at all

25:38

. Matter of fact , she

25:41

didn't do anything And

25:43

it was the second one who educated

25:45

me on it . Even almost

25:48

10 years later , when

25:51

I go into the doctor's offices , into

25:54

gynecological offices

25:56

, i don't see a

25:58

handful that says do you know where uterine

26:00

fibroids are ? Are

26:03

you familiar with them

26:06

? Do you know about these different

26:08

procedures ? Do you know what to do ? Do

26:10

you know , if you have these symptoms , what you may have ? I

26:13

don't see commercials . Well , i take that

26:15

I have seen one commercial

26:17

on the television , but as far as locally , here

26:19

where I live , where I go day to day

26:21

in clinics , i don't see anything , any type

26:23

of education about it , and

26:26

that's very that's to me . It's just as important

26:28

is have blood pressure and diabetes

26:31

, because you have a lot of women like me that

26:33

was there , walking around every day with a smile

26:35

on their face and they do not feel

26:37

good and don't know why

26:39

. Right , unfortunately

26:42

, in the community , these Black females

26:45

are under looked

26:47

. When we go into the gynecologist and

26:49

say we're in pain , oh my God

26:52

, they don't do a vaginal

26:54

ultrasound and bring

26:56

awareness to the fibroids . So you're

26:58

actually correct .

27:02

Me and Jernetra at a panel

27:04

discussion was called the White

27:06

Dress Project . It's an actual

27:08

good resource for fibroid

27:11

awareness . Jernetra , would you like

27:13

to tell them a little bit more about the White Dress

27:15

Project ? I ?

27:17

actually was very honored

27:19

to participate in the

27:21

panel with the White Dress Project . So

27:24

the White Dress Project , just like

27:26

Shalonda said , is

27:28

a nonprofit . It

27:30

is a nonprofit organization and

27:34

it was created to empower those

27:36

with fibroids to be fearless

27:39

. It was started

27:41

by Tanika

27:43

Valburn in fact , let

27:45

me pronounce her last name I think it's Valburn

27:48

, last name Gray And

27:51

she started the organization

27:54

because she is also an African-American

27:56

woman who has had

27:59

fibroids She's all of her life

28:01

and she's also

28:03

had issues with facility and she started

28:05

her mission to gather and

28:07

support and promote national awareness

28:09

about the fibroid epidemic among people

28:12

domestically and globally through education

28:14

, research and advocacy . So

28:16

, and it's called the White Dress Project because

28:19

she believes in , by educating people about

28:21

fibroids , the treatment options and sharing

28:24

our stories together , she hopes

28:26

to embody all women

28:28

who have experienced fibroids

28:30

to wear white because , as you know , when

28:32

you have fibroids and you're heavy bleeding

28:34

all the time , we don't wear white pants

28:37

, we don't have white sheets , we

28:39

don't wear white . And I'm still skeptical

28:41

about wearing white . Now The only thing white is my car

28:44

and this is . And

28:47

I don't even have white underwear . I'm just

28:49

being honest And

28:52

it's more now of just of fear

28:54

, even though I don't have the exonance

28:57

that I used to have , but she

28:59

has created this nonprofit

29:01

and she goes around to different cities and states

29:04

and she has these empowerment

29:06

branches and it's an intimate setting

29:08

where she encourages

29:10

women to just share their experiences

29:13

with fibroids and just

29:15

let them know that you have a voice and you have

29:17

a support circle and you

29:19

don't have to be afraid . You know them in

29:21

touch with physicians and

29:23

other people who've had those experiences So

29:25

they don't no longer have to feel like that

29:27

they're alone . Because I know one young

29:30

lady when they came to Jackson one young

29:32

lady she was the only person in her family who

29:34

had experienced fibroids and

29:36

other people in her family had children and

29:38

she just felt she said she was debating the back

29:40

coming because she just felt so

29:42

alone in this and she was like I'm so glad I came

29:45

today because you know I'm

29:47

hearing y'all stories and it's just resonating with me

29:49

like it just made me cry because I was like . I

29:51

was like you know you're not alone , we are your support

29:53

system because we all can identify with the same thing

29:55

. So what she's doing in her platform

29:58

is just a really great thing . She's doing it all

30:00

around the United States .

30:02

Absolutely , and if you want to know more

30:05

about the White Dress Project , the

30:07

website is the whitedressprojectorg

30:10

. We will put that information

30:13

on our social media website

30:15

. I just think it's really good the

30:17

things that she's doing . I think

30:19

it's a really good thing what you're doing , janitra

30:21

, being an advocate for individuals

30:23

that are half fibroids

30:26

and the challenges that goes along with

30:28

that . It hinders you or

30:30

you have challenges physically , but also

30:32

mentally . it can have some mental

30:34

components to anxiety

30:37

, depression . Some have suffered

30:39

some post traumatic stress as well

30:41

. So I'm just thankful

30:43

that you were able to come on our platform

30:46

to share awareness

30:48

about fibroids . Thank

30:50

you for joining us today . I want to just

30:52

thank you for coming on , and

30:55

this concludes our

30:57

Fibroid Awareness

30:59

session today .

31:01

So I want everybody to take care . Y'all

31:05

take care too , thank you .

31:07

Bye Have , a good day , bye

31:09

Have a good day .