Kristina Coleman is sitting in a small examination room. It’s been nine months since her surgery and she says her symptoms of heavy bleeding during menstruation have subsided significantly because of it.
Coleman, a Prince George’s County resident, recently had a laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation procedure, a minimally invasive surgery that is new to the Luminis Health OB-GYN Center in Bowie.
The symptoms still come and go. “The cramping and maybe the tiredness, but the actual heavy bleeding is stopped. All, like 100%, I may spot here and there but it's nothing major at all,” Coleman tells her OB-GYN Dr. Jonelle Samuel.
Coleman suffered from uterine fibroids, noncancerous growths in the uterus that cause extreme pain, bleeding so severe it may require blood transfusions and complications during labor and pregnancy.
The procedure she had used an MRI to find fibroids in her uterus and a device generated radio frequencies to destroy the growths.
Black women, like Coleman, are three times more likely to have fibroids than white women.
Prince George’s County is going through some issues with women’s health, especially with Black women.
Only 55% of women in the county receive prenatal care, 25% below the national average and 12% below Maryland’s average.
The jurisdiction has a maternal mortality 50% above the national average and 40% above Maryland’s average.
Prince George’s County has a history of successful minorities and growing wealth. However, as Washington D.C. gentrifies and more people are being pushed out of the city into the suburbs, the county is seeing health, racial and wealth disparities grow.
The county saw an increase in population for 10 of the last 11 years, now it’s flirting with a population of nearly one million people.
“What we have seen across the country is that in communities of color we have underinvested in the community,” said Dr. Sanmi Areola, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer for health, human services and education. “We don't invest enough like we do in other parts of the county, the resources that are needed to build the infrastructure to ensure that everyone, like moms, have access to prenatal care. All of those are very, very important in bridging the disparities.”
Prince George’s County is working to fix some of those health disparities, though.
Luminis Health, where Dr. Samuel works, is embarking on a $300 million campaign to renovate its campus at Luminis Health Doctors Community Center in Lanham.
The multi-year project includes building a women’s health center, which the county does not have.
The county is working with Luminis to secure $6 million in funding to support its construction.
“This would be a new four-story building that we would connect to our existing hospital building,” said Deneen Richmond, the president of the Health Doctors Community Center.
“Two floors of that will be dedicated to labor and delivery and providing postpartum care. Once we reach our full peak, we are planning to be able to deliver over 2,000 babies a year. The other floors of the building, which are being designed to also allow us to modernize our surgical suites, as well as create a better design and more appropriate sizing for some of our support services.”
Luminis is currently seeking state approval for its new facility.
