The singer FKA twigs has said her “confidence as a woman was knocked” after laparoscopic surgery to have six fibroid tumours removed from her uterus.

The 30-year-old Mercury prize nominee, whose real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, said she underwent the procedure in December. In a long Instagram post, she said she was a very private person and had been unsure whether she should share the news that she had been recovering from surgery.

Fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the womb. Around a third of women develop them during their lifetime, according to the NHS. The exact cause is not known, but they have been linked to the hormone oestrogen and usually develop during a woman’s reproductive years, commonly 16-50, when oestrogen levels are at their highest.

Barnett said the tumours she had had removed were “pretty large”. She wrote that they were “the size of two cooking apples, three kiwis and a couple of strawberries. A fruit bowl of pain every day. The nurse said that the weight and size was like being six months pregnant.”

She continued: “I tried to be brave but it was excruciating at times and to be honest I started to doubt if my body would ever feel the same again. I had surgery in December and I was so scared. Despite lots of love from friends and family I felt really alone and my confidence as a woman was knocked.

“But today whilst dancing with Kelly at the choreography house, I felt like my strong self again for the first time in a while and it was magical. Thank you precious body for healing, thank you for reminding me to be kind to myself, you are a wonderful thing, now go create and be other once again.”



Barnett said she was aware that a lot of women suffered from fibroid tumours and she “just wanted to say after my experience that you are amazing warriors and that you are not alone. you can get through this”.

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She ended her message by saying: “And with this I let go of the pain … love always twigs.”

In October Barnett launched an Instagram magazine, AVANTgarden, which has tackled issues of race and beauty. Last summer the Twilight actor Robert Pattinson told the US radio host Howard Stern that he and the singer were “kind of” engaged, but more recent reports have suggested they are no longer together.

When the pair’s relationship first came to light, Barnett said she received online abuse from his fans. “I am genuinely shocked and disgusted at the amount of racism that has been infecting my account the past week,” she tweeted at the time.