After marrying the partner of her dreams, platinum-selling rapper Da Brat shared that she dreams of expanding her family and creating a child with her wife, Jesseca “Judy” Harris-Dupart, chief executive officer of Kaleidoscope Hair Products.
The beautiful couple united in marriage this past February at the Horse Mansion in Fairburn, Georgia, where guests like Eva Marcille and Kandi Burruss came to enjoy the romantic ceremony. Da Brat even told People, “Everything about her made me want her to be mine forever. And I felt like I knew it not much longer than from the day we met.”
But her dreams of adding a child to the family was that she had two fibroid tumors were crushing. “The doctor suggested that I shouldn’t carry. I saw ’em. I did the whole ultrasound and all that sh*t. I saw the tumors. I mean, I don’t know much about fibroid tumors, but you know he was like it would probably be better if my partner carries.” Da Brat said during the episode. According to WomensHealth.gov, about 20 percent to 80 percent of women develop fibroids by the time they reach age 50.
Not long ago, Da Brat and Harris-Dupart shared that they were hospitalized temporarily from IVF complications while on the Tamron Hall show. “It’s just been a lot, but we were not giving up…We want a baby together. So we want it to be, you know, we wanted, we want some of me, some of her. So we both had to go through different things to make it happen. This has been a journey.” Like the nurturing being she is, Da Brat was fearful of disappointing Harris-Dupart. Not to mention her excitement to experience motherhood in the way she envisioned.
Fibroids are more common and more severe among African American women. Some even believe that fibroids should be considered a public health issue, given the magnitude of the problem and the costs of health care for this disease.
By age 50, nearly two-thirds of women experience uterine fibroids, noncancerous tumors that grow in the uterus and range from pea to football-sized and even larger. It’s also possible to have multiple uterine fibroids at the same time.
In many cases, uterine fibroids cause no noticeable symptoms, but for some people, they can cause heavy menstrual bleeding and other symptoms, such as:
- prolonged menstrual periods
- pelvic pressure or pain
- frequent need to urinate
- difficulty emptying bladder
- constipation
- backaches
- leg pain
- fertility problems and pregnancy complications
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And they disproportionately impact women of color. Black women are diagnosed with fibroids roughly three times as frequently as white women, develop them earlier in life and tend to experience larger and more numerous fibroids that cause more severe symptoms.
Nearly a quarter of Black women between 18 and 30 have fibroids compared to about 6% of white women, according to some national estimates. By age 35, that number increases to 60%. Black women are also two to three times more likely to have recurring fibroids or suffer from complications.
Black women are also at least twice as likely as white women to remove their uterus through a hysterectomy. A third of hysterectomies are done during peak childbearing years between ages 18 and 44.
Judy shared her own difficult experiences with IVF during an appearance on the Tamron Hall Show.
She went into detail about undertaking In Vitro Fertilization, which is a journey that Hall is familiar with as well.
“Since you’ve been through IVF, you can just imagine the journey [and] the complications,” Judy told Hall. “I was hospitalized with blood clots. It’s just been a lot but