Jill Martin took to the Today couch with a very personal story.
The longtime contributor opened up about her long-running health battle with fibroids, or noncancerous growths on the uterus, during the NBC morning show on March 2.
"This has impacted my life for some time but I haven't chosen to share my experience until now," Jill explained, revealing that while she's actually suffered from fibroids since 2019, it wasn't until the start of the New Year that "many viewers were noticing a change" in her body. "Some thinking I was pregnant, others asking if I had gained weight."
The reason, she explained, was that her stomach "physically became distorted by the fibroids. One of mine had grown to the size of a grapefruit and it was sitting on my uterus. It hurt to have intercourse and I was constantly having to use the restroom because of all the pressure."
Like many other women in a similar situation, Jill said she had always been under the impression that a hysterectomy was the only treatment option.
Then, one day while researching fibroids, Jill stumbled upon a less invasive treatment known as uterine fibroid embolization. Before she knew it, she was undergoing the procedure at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell, with the hopes that it would alleviate the pain from her two fibroids.
With her fiancée Eric by her side, vascular and interventional radiologist Dr. Marc Schiffman delivered some truly shocking news after performing the procedure: Jill didn't just have two fibroids, she had 18.
However, the treatment "doesn't get rid of the fibroids," Jill said. "It cuts the blood flow to them which helps them to shrink and become manageable."
And for the time being, there's no telling if the procedure was successful. "I will know if it works in six months," she revealed. "But I am already on the mend."
Jill's Today costars were certainly thrilled to hear this, applauding her for her bravery.
"I've been with the show for 13 years," Jill began, "and our viewers, you know, we share the good. And I think as a family to find strength, you have to share the bad."
Continuing to spread awareness, she emphasized that fibroids are "fixable."
"Historically, you think that hysterectomy is the only option...so you deal with it and you deal with the pain," Jill explained, "and you see the way my body was. I didn't look like me or feel like me, and the pain was so unbearable. And the thought of not being able to carry children—although that's not in my plan right now—wasn't an option for me."
"And so to be exposed to these other options that so many women don't know about," she added, "is why I'm sharing this."
Read more about Jill's journey here.
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