By Jasmine Smith

It’s been a decade since former “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Cynthia Bailey got treatment for her fibroids, but she still remembers how they impacted so many aspects of her life, both mentally and physically, causing her to feel like a “disaster”.

“It’s very hard to be in a good space mentally when you’re bleeding all the time and when you don’t have any energy, and you’re anemic and you don’t have the sex drive you used to have,” the 55-year-old tells PEOPLE. “Mentally, I found that I was just in a dark place without really knowing I was in a dark place. When I look at photos of myself during that time, it was like the light was gone because I was bleeding to death in a lot of ways.”

Fibroids during pregnancy

Bailey was pregnant with her now 22-year-old daughter, Noelle Robinson, when she found out she had a fibroid “the size of a grape”. At the time, it wasn’t symptomatic nor was it affecting her baby, but over time her symptoms began to worsen causing doctors to recommend birth control pills to shorten her menstrual cycle.

“My periods were always super heavy,” Bailey adds. “I basically never had white sheets on my bed. I was always bleeding out.” She remembers having to change her tampon every one or two hours and suffering accidental leaks despite also wearing sanitary pads.

“Work wise it was very difficult to even work the first two or three days of my cycle, because my bleeding was just so heavy. I was anemic, so I had no energy, very low sex drive.” And, when she did have a sex drive, Bailey says the sex was painful, which affected her relationship with then-husband Peter Thomas.

“It not only affected me. It was affecting my family, my husband, my sex life,” she says. “I was moody. I was exhausted. I was anemic. I was bleeding all the time. I was a disaster.”

She began to feel like her life revolved around her period.

Women with fibroids have options

Now Bailey is teaming up with USA Fibroids Centers for Women’s History Month to educate women about a non-invasive, non-surgical way to treat fibroids, which has affected her for 14 years.

Fibroids affect 80 percent of Black women and 70 percent of white women by age 50, according to the National Institutes of Health.

At the time, Bailey’s fibroids were causing her severe exhaustion and had grown so large fans began to think she was pregnant.

Bailey knew that a hysterectomy (a surgical procedure to remove the uterus) was not an option for her. “…That was…something that I really didn’t want to have,” she says. “I wanted to be open to having more children if I wanted to. Even if I didn’t want to, I just wanted the option.”

So, she instead opted for uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), which she discovered by doing her own research. UFE is a minimally invasive procedure used to treat fibroid tumors of the uterus by blocking the arteries that provide blood to the fibroids and causing them to shrink. It can often be done in an outpatient setting.

“[The] procedure is done through [a] catheter. They enter in the wrist or in the groin and the catheter goes around, [into] the blood vessels towards the origin of the arteries that feed the fibroids,” Dr. Yan Katsnelson, the founder of USA Fibroid Centers says.

Doctors use minute beads to “clog the vessels that go to the fibroids, and the fibroids just die and disappear.” “Think [of it] like [you] stop watering the plant or the field of grass. The grass dies,” he says. “It’s exactly the same thing. Without sufficient blood supply, the tumors stop functioning and just get absorbed…”

Unfortunately, many women living with fibroids are not aware that there are options for treating fibroids beyond a hysterectomy. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 200,000 women are subjected to hysterectomies each year to treat fibroids.

“I use my celebrity to keep the information out there for women to understand that they do have options and they do not have to suffer in silence,” she says. “And they do not have to have their uterus removed to deal with their fibroid situation. That should be a last resort if it even needs to happen at all.”

Bailey documented the 40-minute procedure on the “Real Housewives of Atlanta”. “The experience was great,” Bailey adds. “I went in, they gave me some light anesthesia. I don’t remember the procedure.”

She suffered cramping but, was able to return to filming after resting at home for two days. Within two to three months, she noticed drastic changes. Her menstrual flow was much lighter, lasting only three to four days as opposed to eight to nine.

Picking the best treatment

It is important to have an honest conversation with your doctor before making a final decision on the best method of treatment for your fibroids. They are many options available. Your doctor will help you determine a treatment plan based on your age, the size of your fibroids and your overall health. If your fibroids are small or don’t produce symptoms, you may not need treatment. In some cases, you may receive a combination of treatments. You should also speak with your doctor if you have fibroids and are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. He or she will monitor you closely.