Black, Hispanic, and Asian women are being diagnosed with uterine fibroids at significantly higher rates than their White counterparts, according to a large study discussed by research scientist Susanna Mitro, PhD. Drawing on data from nearly 2 million patients in an integrated health system, the study found diagnosis rates were about three times higher for Black patients than for White patients, reinforcing earlier work that has long signaled disproportionate fibroid burden in Black communities.
The disparities did not stop there. Hispanic patients also experienced slightly elevated diagnosis rates compared with White patients, while Asian patients showed striking internal differences that upend the idea of a single “Asian” risk profile. South Asian patients had a 71% higher diagnosis rate than White patients, East Asian patients 47% higher, and Southeast Asian patients 29% higher, underscoring how aggregated racial categories can conceal high-risk subgroups.
Mitro emphasized that prior fibroid research largely centered on Black and White women, leaving Asian populations underexamined and their risks underrecognized. The new analysis, she noted, can guide clinicians who may be unaware of how fibroid risk varies across racial and ethnic lines, and it may help identify modifiable risk factors that differ by group.
The study did not set out to pinpoint the causes of these gaps, but it raises urgent questions about social and lifestyle influences, patterns of health care use, cultural perceptions of symptoms such as heavy menstrual bleeding, and the possibility of implicit bias in diagnosis. Co-author Eve Zaritsky, MD, has called for raising awareness and building clinical frameworks to confront these care disparities, even as the team stresses that clinical bias has not been proved as the driver.
See: “Susanna Mitro, PhD, reveals ethnic disparities in uterine fibroid diagnosis” (April 10, 2025)
