Marsai Martin is opening up about her ovarian cyst surgery.
In December, Martin took to Instagram Live to detail her pain leading up to the diagnosis and her decision to undergo surgery.
In last month’s Women’s Health issue, the Black-ish star revealed that she was getting the cyst removed.
“I wanted to share my experience so that other women wouldn’t suffer in silence,” Martin wrote. “Before my diagnosis, I thought the crippling period pain and severe nausea I went through each month during my cycle was normal. So, I resisted going to the ER for my period pain for years.”
“And if I hadn’t sought out help, I probably would have continued trying to tough it out. I would have continued to go through intense, debilitating pain every month during my period,” she added.
At 14 years old, Martin said she had a scan done once her “symptoms got really bad.”
She said the scan showed that she had a cyst “that was 9.5 centimeters in diameter,” which her doctor compared to the size of “a small grapefruit.”
Martin then revealed that there was a gynecologist who prescribed pain medication to help her “feel better.” However, the “pain eventually progressed to the point where anything that went down — water, food, medication — would come back up.”
Eventually, Martin had to choose between having the cyst surgically removed or trying to manage the cyst’s symptoms with a birth control pill.
Ultimately, she made the decision to have it removed, and she booked the procedure for December.
“I was so scared in the weeks leading up–it was the only thing I could think about,” Martin said. “I have major anxiety, and I didn’t know how my body would react to the surgery and anesthesia. I’d never even been in a hospital for longer than a few hours. But as I waited for my surgery date, I still got my period each month. And despite my fears, every month I just kept thinking, ‘I can’t wait for this pain to be over.’”
While she still suffers “mild cramps” that can be relieved with medicine, Martin stated in another section of her Women’s Health piece that the surgery had made a significant improvement on her period symptoms she previously experienced.
She claimed that she wanted to share her experience in order to inspire other women to pay attention to their bodies and to speak up when something seems off.
“I hope my story will encourage other women to not accept a life of pain, to get a second opinion,” she said. “Pain is not normal. I want other women to talk about their pain, and to keep speaking out until they’re taken seriously. And to the women out there suffering silently right now: You owe it to yourself to speak up.”
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