Avon Medical Deepens Fibroid Awareness, Puts Patient Experience at Heart of Care

As fibroids continue to affect the quality of life of many women, Avon Medical Practice is using the story of survivor Moyo Awotile to deepen awareness and promote timely medical care. Through its documentary, Overcoming Fibroids: A Journey of Care and Compassion, the Lagos-based multispecialty healthcare provider is bringing the conversation beyond diagnosis and treatment to the realities patients face, while highlighting its broader approach to women’s health and comprehensive medical care. Chiemelie Ezeobi writes 

“You are not meant to suffer in silence.”

For Moyo Awotile, those words carry the weight of experience. Her warning to women about painful and excessively heavy periods comes from a decade-long journey with uterine fibroids that gradually moved from a medical diagnosis she barely worried about to a debilitating condition that affected almost every part of her life.

Awotile was diagnosed with fibroids in 2018 after missing her period for a month and undergoing an ultrasound. At the time, the discovery did not appear urgent.

“I didn’t take it seriously. I just kept living my life. And I noticed that over the years, my periods got progressively worse,” she said.

That progression is part of what makes fibroids difficult to confront. The condition does not always announce itself dramatically. For some women, fibroids remain small and cause no symptoms. For others, they grow silently until heavy bleeding, pain, abdominal swelling or pressure begins to interfere with everyday life.

For Awotile, the symptoms became increasingly difficult to ignore.

“I was in pain almost all the time. I could not sit down for long. Working in the office was a nightmare. I could not fly for long, and I could not walk for long. Everything was painful,” she recalled.

At one point, one of the growths became visible through her abdomen.

“One was protruding from my abdomen. I would lie down and look at my stomach and wonder what was happening because I had never seen anything like it before.”

By the time she returned to Avon Medical Practice, the condition had progressed significantly. Seventeen fibroids were eventually removed from her body.

“The fibroids were massive. Seventeen fibroids were removed from my body. I was experiencing shooting pains in my legs in addition to the heavy periods and cramps,” she said.

Awotile’s experience provides a human face to a condition that Nigerian researchers continue to describe as a significant women’s health burden.

When Pain is Dismissed

Fibroids are benign growths that develop from the muscle of the uterus. While they are not cancerous, their effect on a woman’s health can be substantial when they become large, numerous or positioned in areas that interfere with normal uterine function.

Symptoms can include heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding, painful periods, pelvic pain and pressure, abdominal enlargement, anaemia and fertility problems.

Nigerian studies have also documented menstrual irregularities, abdominal swelling and infertility among common presentations.

But one of the challenges is that women can become accustomed to symptoms before seeking help.

A 2025 study involving 138 women receiving care at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, found that 62.3 per cent presented more than six months after symptoms began. The researchers linked delayed presentation to factors including inadequate knowledge, fear of surgery, treatment costs, cultural misconceptions, negligence and lack of social support.

That pattern helps explain why early attention matters.

Awotile herself described her initial attitude simply: “I knew from 2018 that I had fibroids. Because I was small and younger, I didn’t care. I thought everybody has it.”

But fibroids are not necessarily something a woman has to endure simply because they are common.

“Having painful periods is not normal. Having excessively heavy periods is also not normal,” she said.

The message is not that every painful period indicates fibroids. Rather, persistent or unusually heavy bleeding and pain that disrupt work, movement, relationships or daily activities deserve medical assessment.

Avon’s Approach to Women’s Health

It was against this background that Avon Medical Practice used Awotile’s experience to create Overcoming Fibroids: A Journey of Care and Compassion, a documentary that moves the conversation beyond the medical description of fibroids to the lived experience of a patient.

For Avon, the story also reflects a broader approach to healthcare. The Lagos-based multispecialty healthcare provider offers services spanning primary care, specialist consultations, diagnostics, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, endoscopy, radiology, laboratory services and wellness screening. 

Its women’s health services include obstetrics and gynaecology, while its wider specialist network covers areas such as cardiology, paediatrics, endocrinology, orthopaedics and physiotherapy.

Its facilities are designed around what the organisation describes as end-to-end care — from prevention and diagnosis through treatment and recovery. The practice also provides pharmacy, laboratory and radiodiagnostic support, allowing patients to access several components of care within the same healthcare system.

That combination becomes particularly important in conditions such as fibroids, where diagnosis, treatment decisions and follow-up cannot always be separated.

A woman presenting with heavy menstrual bleeding may require a consultation, pelvic imaging and laboratory investigations before doctors determine whether fibroids are responsible and how severe the condition is. 

Depending on the findings, treatment may range from observation and medication to procedures or surgery. Avon’s diagnostic services include laboratory testing and radiology, while its clinical services include gynaecology and surgical care.

For women whose condition requires surgery, that wider ecosystem of care can also become important before and after the procedure. It was the kind of care Awotile experienced.

From Diagnosis to Treatment

At Avon, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Dr. Akintomiwa Bankole, said Awotile’s pelvic ultrasound showed multiple fibroids located within the uterine muscle and beneath the lining of the uterus.

Treatment for fibroids is not one-size-fits-all. Doctors consider factors such as the size and location of the growths, the severity of symptoms, the woman’s age and whether she hopes to have children.

Some women may only need observation, particularly where symptoms are absent or mild. Others may require medication to manage bleeding and pain, minimally invasive procedures or surgery.

Awotile eventually underwent an open abdominal myomectomy, a procedure that removes fibroids while preserving the uterus.

For many women, the possibility of surgery can raise another concern — fertility.

Bankole explained that having fibroids removed does not automatically mean that a woman will lose the ability to conceive.

“Fibroid surgery does not automatically mean that a woman will be unable to get pregnant,” he said.

“We have managed patients who have gone on to conceive after fibroid surgery.”

The decision about treatment therefore has to be individualised, rather than driven by fear.

That is one reason access to specialist gynaecological care and appropriate diagnostics is important.

Care Beyond the Operating Room

For Awotile, however, the story did not end when the 17 fibroids were removed.

Recovery became another part of the experience. She remembers not only the procedure but also the attention she received afterwards.

“Nobody knew who I was, yet they were happy to take care of me,” she said.

“After my discharge, the aftercare has also been very good. I keep getting calls and check-ups. I have come back a couple of times, and even though I have been discharged, they still check on me to find out how I am doing.”

That emphasis on patient experience is central to Avon’s positioning of its healthcare model.

Its services extend beyond hospital treatment to wellness screening, home nursing care and ambulance evacuation, while its facilities include specialist clinics, diagnostics and surgical services. The practice describes its model as focused on total wellbeing rather than medical intervention alone.

For Chief Executive Officer of Avon Medical Practice, Dr Akinbiyi Oke, that philosophy was behind the decision to document Awotile’s experience.

“Fibroids are not just medical statistics. They are significant factors in the life of a woman, and this affects her quality of life and overall wellbeing,” Oke said.

“What we are about to watch is not Nollywood or Bollywood. It is a story about real people, real patients and real doctors.”

The documentary therefore serves two purposes: drawing attention to fibroids and demonstrating what compassionate, patient-centred healthcare can mean when a woman moves from diagnosis to treatment and recovery.

A Wider Nigerian Health Challenge

The need for that awareness is underscored by the available Nigerian evidence. A 2023 population-based study described African women as carrying some of the highest fibroid burdens globally, while a review of fibroids among Black African women found higher incidence and prevalence among women of African ancestry compared with other racial groups.

Researchers have also identified gaps in reliable data on fibroids across sub-Saharan Africa. That makes awareness and early medical assessment even more important.

The challenge is not simply getting women into hospitals. It is helping them recognise when a symptom deserves attention.

For Awotile, that lesson came after years of progressively worsening symptoms.

Today, she describes a very different relationship with her menstrual cycle.

“I do not even know when my period is coming anymore. Apart from the normal hormonal changes, there is no pain. It has been very good, and the surgical scar is almost gone.”

Her experience has also changed what she wants other women to do. “My advice is that women should not be scared. Go to the hospital and speak to your doctors. Go to the right doctor and get the right medical attention.”

That message sits at the heart of Avon Medical Practice’s wider women’s health effort: that healthcare should not begin only when a condition becomes unbearable, and treatment should not end when a procedure is completed.

For women living with fibroids, the journey can involve diagnosis, specialist care, treatment, recovery and continued support.

And sometimes, as Awotile’s experience shows, the most important step is simply deciding that the pain is no longer something to live with.