Evicted Big Brother Naija All Stars housemate Uriel Oputa has recounted her struggle with amenorrhea that lasted for four years.
Amenorrhea is when you don’t get your menstrual period. There are two kinds of amenorrhea: primary and secondary. Primary amenorrhea is when a person older than 15 has never gotten their first period. Secondary amenorrhea happens when a person doesn’t get a period for more than three months. Examples include menopause, pregnancy, use of birth control, medication side effects, delayed puberty and stress.
The 35-year-old singer said the health challenge was “the lowest point” of her life, stressing that doctors told her that she may never be able to have a child.
She disclosed this in a recent chat with media personality Hero Daniels.
She said:
“Before I decided to embark on a health journey, I had health challenges. One of them was that I didn’t see my period for four years. And I remember going to the doctors in the UK, and they told me that there was a high possibility that I would never be able to have children. That time, my niece was two years old and I remember leaving the office thinking, ‘Oh! I will never be able to have a child.’
“I went into a state of depression. I was so depressed that I couldn’t watch kids on TV. I hated going past schools or parks because I would be reminded constantly that I may not be able to be a mother.
So, it reached a point where I said, ‘Okay, if I can’t be a mother, I would have my niece as mine.’ And that is why, till today, we [my niece and I] are very close because she looks at me as a second mother.”