Suafiatu Tunis - Strength in the Storm

Suafiatu’s story is one of endurance, silence, and ultimately, quiet resilience.

Her journey with fibroids began in ways that felt confusing and contradictory. At first, her periods were unbearably painful. Then they stopped altogether for months. In search of relief, she turned to traditional Chinese remedies. Her periods came back, but the pain never left. When they returned, the bleeding was heavier than ever.  Thick, clotted blood that left her drained and weak, forcing her to remain homebound every month when her period came.

In search of relief, she turned to traditional Chinese remedies. Her periods came back, but the pain never left. It crept into every part of her life. Intimacy with her husband became difficult, the discomfort impossible to ignore. The exhaustion affected her ability to work, and her sense of self began to erode under the weight of a condition no one seemed to take seriously.

When she returned to Sierra Leone, she sought medical answers. A scan finally revealed six fibroids. For years she had endured without a name for what was happening inside her. The truth was both clarifying and devastating. She longed for another child, so she delayed surgery, clinging to hope. She did conceive and gave birth to her second daughter, but the fibroids grew worse after pregnancy. The pain reached levels she could only describe as greater than childbirth.

At the same time, Suafiatu was grieving the loss of her mother. The sorrow deepened her isolation. She found it difficult to open up to anyone. Friends and family normalized her pain, dismissing it as “what women go through.” No one asked how she was truly feeling. In that silence, her daughters became her greatest source of comfort. They cared for her gently, helping her through the days when she could not move, offering presence when no one else could.

Eventually, Suafiatu could no longer postpone the inevitable. She chose a subtotal hysterectomy. The surgery brought her much-needed relief, but it also introduced new fears. She worried about the possibility of fibroids returning or becoming cancerous. The procedure changed everything at once. Her body, her emotions, her sense of womanhood. Healing did not come overnight. It came in waves, layered and complex, both physical and emotional.

Now, Suafiatu is navigating life in a new body. She is careful and conscious of her limits, but she is also learning to carry hope again. Her story is one of healing forward, not back. With each step, she embraces the truth that her pain was real, that her story matters, and that survival is not the same as silence.

She walks with a deeper knowing now. That beauty can live alongside pain. That daughters can become caretakers. That healing is not the end of a story, but the beginning of reclaiming it.