Every July, Fibroid Awareness Month presents a huge opportunity for us to get loud about a condition that affects the majority of women at some point in their lives, yet still doesn’t get the attention, research funding, or open conversation it deserves: Uterine Fibroids.

FAM 2026 brought the conversation about fibroids to a range of rooms and audiences. Here’s a look back at where we showed up, who we talked to, and what we learned along the way.

Kicking Off at Essence Festival of Culture

We opened the month at the perfect place to have a conversation about Black women’s health belongs: the Essence Festival of Culture. Sharing a booth with our partners at Always, we brought fibroid education directly to festival-goers, turning a celebration of culture into an opportunity for real talk about menstrual health, symptom recognition, and the disproportionate impact fibroids have on Black women.

The energy at the booth was a reminder of what we already know all too well – women want this information, and they want it delivered without shame. You can read more about the partnership and what we covered in the official press release.

UK Fibroid Summit

Next, our Founder, Sateria Venable, left The Big Easy and traveled to the UK Fibroid Summit 2026, joining fibroid specialists and advocates from around the world. Fibroids don’t stop at borders, and neither should the research, treatment innovation, and patient advocacy addressing them. Sateria’s participation was a chance to bring the American patient perspective into a global dialogue, and bring global insights back home to our community.

Comparative Effectiveness of Fibroid Treatments

On July 16, we hosted our second PCORI convening in Washington, DC, digging into one of the questions patients ask us most: which fibroid treatment actually works best?

The evening opened with remarks from Adelaide K. Appiah, PCORI Project Director, who spoke to PCORI’s mission and its continued support of the Fibroid Foundation’s work. From there, a lineup of clinical and research leaders took the conversation deeper:

• Dr. Gloria Bowles-Johnson shared clinical experience on the real-world effectiveness of current fibroid treatment options.
• Dr. Shannon Laughlin-Tommaso, joining via Zoom from the Mayo Clinic, brought a research-driven perspective grounded in years of clinical study.
• Dr. Bill Catherino closed out the panel with a look at where uterine fibroid research is headed next.

The room was engaged and hungry for exactly this kind of evidence-based, no-jargon conversation. Our partners at Hologic, represented by Renee Paquette, Director of Society Engagement, Medical Education, closed the evening before the group moved into a reception to keep the conversation going informally.

Expanding the Treatment Landscape

A week later, we brought the conversation online for Expanding the Treatment Landscape, a virtual panel exploring the evolving world of fibroid treatment options, emerging technologies, and the future of patient-centered care.

Sateria Venable sat down with Dr. Mazhar Adli and Le’Nise Brothers to unpack the comparative effectiveness of various treatments, the key factors patients should weigh when making care decisions, and why expanding access to minimally invasive and innovative options matters so much. The conversation was centered on the real questions patients ask every day, not the ones textbooks assume we ask.

Missed it live? Watch the full recording here.

Sateria on PBS NewsHour’s Horizons

We closed out our July programming with a mic drop: on July 24, Sateria appeared on PBS NewsHour’s Horizons to talk uterine fibroids on a national stage. The segment tackled a question at the heart of everything we do – why do fibroids remain so misunderstood, despite affecting most women?

It’s the kind of visibility that turns a month of advocacy into a lasting shift in public understanding. Watch the full segment here.

The Work Continues

Fibroid Awareness Month may only last 31 days, but the conversations we started at a festival booth, in a DC auditorium, on a global stage, and on national television don’t end when July does. Each of these moments is proof that people are ready to talk about fibroids openly, and that they’re looking to us to lead that conversation.

Thank you to everyone who made this July possible: our partners, our panelists, our physicians, and most of all, the patients who trusted us with their questions. We’re proud of what we brought to the community this year, and we’re already looking ahead to what’s next.

Want to stay in the loop on our next event? Sign up for our newsletter or follow us on social media for updates throughout the year.