Family health histories are often the missing pieces in the puzzle of our wellbeing, so for Black women, the absence of medical records or the reliance on fragmented oral accounts carries profound consequences.

Diagnoses for illnesses that disproportionately affect Black people and women often come late – not because the symptoms are invisible, but because structural barriers delay access to healthcare. These barriers include systemic racism, economic inequality, and cultural silences around illness. When families fail to document or openly discuss their medical histories, the result is a cycle of lateness: late diagnoses, late interventions, and late opportunities for prevention.

I know this intimately. As a woman in my thirties who has spent the past decade reporting on health, I have always believed in openness. I expected my family to mirror that openness, to share their health stories with me as readily as I shared mine.