“As Black women, fibroids are a constant in our lives; in our family’s lives. We always know someone, like a friend or a family member, who’s experienced fibroids,” says Candice Onyeama, a 36-year-old screenwriter and filmmaker based in Berlin.

When you consider that Black women are more likely to have fibroids than women of other races, this sentiment rings true. For example, according to a study published in March 2016 in the journal Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology, almost a quarter of Black women between 18-30 have fibroids compared to about 6% of white women, and that number increases to 60% by the time they reach 35. But what exactly are fibroids?

Fibroids are noncancerous growths of the uterus that are made of muscle and fibrous connective tissue. Also known as uterine fibroids, leiomyomas or myomas, they can either grow as a single nodule or a cluster. They can also vary in size, number and location. For example, intramural fibroids develop in the wall of the womb whereas subserosal fibroids develop outside the wall of the womb, and submucosal fibroids develop in the muscular layer beneath the womb’s inner lining.

The way they attach themselves to the womb can also vary in that, although both subserosal fibroids and pedunculated fibroids grow on the outside of the womb, pedunculated fibroids connect to it with a thin stem so that it resembles a mushroom.