Exactly one year ago in our Newsletter no. 12 we were already reporting about the gynecological problems of refugee women, with which the women approached us in our meetings.
We got to know a lot of cases especially from women who had cystes and were operated, but also women with heavy bleedings, myomas,…
Unfortunately during this year we have been witnessing that many of these problemes were not treated appropriately. In many cases they are directly treated with radical/dramatical measures like operations and the women are lacking time and (medical) knowledge in their mother language to decide on a treatment on their own.
In one case of ongoing strong bleadings her doctor in Brandenburg even suggested the removal of the uterus to the woman. To get another opinion/view we connected the woman to a trustworthy gnyo from the family center BALANCE in Berlin with which we are networking. As expected this doctor proposed her to firstly try another option of treatment before removing the uterus.
This and many other cases show us that there often exist other possibilities to treat the gynecological problems. Therefore in this year in our meetings we emphazised the topic of womens‘ health and invited counselor/facilitators/experts from the „feminist women health center“ (Feministischen Frauen Gesundheitszentrum: https://www.ffgz.de/) in Berlin who advise and provide information for over 40 years.
We found it important to learn more about our bodies and with this knowledge empower us.
In our workshop this year we practically learnd the self-examination of the breast, we talked about problems around the uterus and other diseases like PCO and endometriosis, and touched the topic of reproduction.
When it comes to the topic of cysts which many women affected, we discovered that they often appear in times of stress. As the women have a lot of stress and problems due to the live in the lager, the asylum system, racism, and further more, we see a direct connection with the appearance of cysts there.
(So one can put it like this : the lager, the system, the racism makes us sick!)
Normally if the body gets rest the cysts will regress on their own by just shrinking but as the women mostly have to live over a long period in this stressful situation, measures like operations have to be taken finally. ???
Also we got the information that a myoma is a benign swelling? But that gynocologists generally recommend women above 40 years to remove the uterus which actually isnt necessary. Along this example we exchanged about unnecessary medical interventions which we experienced.
If you also have gynecological problems or are not sure about the treatment of your gyno, please contact ( us) or directly the follwowing adresses:
FFGZ: Bamberger Str. 51, 10777 Berlin
Tel.: 030 213 95 97
Familienplanungszentrum Balance ?
