Watch: Dr. Thomasena Ellison on fibroids and their impact on Black women
“We do not have the access to health care that should be provided to us,” says Dr. Thomasena Ellison on the topic of fibroids, naming systemic racism as a factor.
July is Fibroids Awareness Month. As previously reported by theGrio, we featured Dr. Thomasena Ellison, associate director of gynecology at Maimonides Medical Center, on “Unheard” to shed light on fibroids.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Black women are often underdiagnosed and undertreated.
Dr. Ellison explained that uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors of the uterus extremely common in women, especially women of the African diaspora, and she shared her thoughts on why Black women are impacted more when it comes to fibroids.
Check out the transcript of her dialogue below.
Dr. Thomasena Ellison: We’re impacted because of systemic racism. Period. Period. Period. Right. That’s why, right.
And I’m talking about us in general. We do not have the access to health care that should be provided to us. It’s everything from what time the doctor’s office or the health care provider holds office. Many of us don’t have the luxury of taking off that morning or that afternoon to come in to work. There’s child care issues. There are lots of issues that are based on systemic racism.
And I’ve spoken this before in other interviews: Just sitting down and having a health care provider who you — and I’ll put it on the patient this time, which it doesn’t belong to the patient — can not communicate with. Right. That you don’t feel comfortable saying things to that health care provider or you are expressing yourself in one way or the other, and the translation, even though the language may be English, may not be understood about what’s being said.
Sometimes a perception — I’ll put this on a health care provider, of which I am — that they perceive what you’re saying is not really important. But if you’re here in the office and saying something, then it is important. And sometimes it’s very important for the health care provider to understand that if I am presenting, a patient’s presenting, an issue to you, that it’s important to the patient and help her navigate through a point where she feels okay, the problem has been resolved. Okay. Or its at a point where I can live with all my concerns by you explaining things to me or taking me through the appropriate work-up, okay, that this really isn’t a life-threatening or a life-changing issue.
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