The National Institutes of Health estimates that 13 million women in the U.S. have these noncancerous tumors, and black women are three times more likely to develop them. Fibroids occur when tissue grows within, and sometimes outside of, the walls of the uterus. Little is known about how to prevent them or why they happen in the first place. Doctors believe they’re linked to a diet high in fat, which may increase estrogen levels in women. But because they’re not life threatening and affect a very specific segment of the population, they’re low on the medical research totem pole. Less than one percent of fibroid cases become cancerous, but they’re usually accompanied by some seriously disturbing symptoms.

Take Iris, a family friend who lives in New Jersey. She found out she had fibroids 20 years ago after suffering excruciating stomachaches. She’s had two surgeries, including a myomectomy to remove the fibroid tumors, but each time they returned. At one point, she told me, her fibroids caused her to look five months pregnant. A few years ago, while shopping for a bathing suit to wear on a cruise, “a sales woman suggested I look in the maternity section,” Iris said. She did.

My cousin Calida suffered painful cramping and had to be hospitalized as a result of her fibroids. Doctors told her that her uterus was so scarred, it would be nearly impossible for her to conceive. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. I could go on about Melissa in Philadelphia; Sharon in Washington, D.C.; Mary in New York; Sonya in Virginia; myself; and so many others.

Fibroids have become so common that I was challenged to find a woman who didn’t have them. And for such a rampant condition, the options for treatment are laughable at best. Doctors generally suggest doing nothing at all or undergoing a hysterectomy. The logic here is that if women can ride it out without treatment, menopause will do the job naturally. Without all that extra estrogen, fibroids will almost always shrink on their own. A hysterectomy, obviously, will prevent them from returning in more extreme cases.

The drug Lupron, which is used to treat prostate cancer, is known to shrink fibroids, but it induces a temporary state of menopause—and costs $500 a shot—so it’s used sparingly. More recently, there has been success with uterine fibroid embolization, a fairly new treatment that cuts off the blood supply to the fibroid tissue, but it’s still considered experimental so most insurance companies won’t cover it. What were the odds?

The problem with the lack of treatment options is starting to surface as women developing fibroids are becoming younger and younger. They want to have children, and they don’t want to spend a lifetime in discomfort or pain. “I used to treat a lot of women 30 and older,” says Dr. Beverly London, a gyn in Jacksonville, Fla., who performs the embolization procedure. “I’m seeing it in a lot of younger women.”

Dr. London said she’s also starting to treat more white women. And that might be the factor that tips the scales. New figures estimate that 40 percent of all women over the age of 35 will develop fibroids. Until fairly recently, fibroids had been categorized as a black women’s issue or a lifestyle choice—labels that result in a very serious condition becoming racialized. When that happens, research and funding are limited. You know how the rest plays out. “Money is always the holdup,” Dr. London reminds us.

But with the number of fibroid cases among white women increasing that may soon change. Initially, I thought that was pretty disgraceful, that advances in fibroid treatments, which could help so many black women, would only occur as more white women started being affected. Now, I’ve changed my mind. I think it’s time for women, regardless of race, to share resources and information to bring about better treatment options for all of us. In the end, it’s about women’s health, period. Together, I’m certain that we can expel the alien within.