Within the past year, Houston-born rapstress Monaleo has been busier than ever. Between her dreamy pink wedding, releasing her debut album Who Did The Body, going on tour, and winning an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding New Artist, she had no plans of slowing down until her health forced her to. While on the second leg of her national tour, she started feeling severe abdominal pain that she tried to manage with over-the-counter medicine. On March 3, her Instagram account shared that she had to undergo surgery for a sudden medical emergency, which meant canceling her shows in New Orleans and Memphis. While fans sent their prayers, the full story of what happened was even more intense.
Monaleo later went on TikTok Live to explain the severity of the situation. She described struggling through an ultrasound while dealing with nausea and extreme pain. “They’re giving me anti anxiety medication, so I can calm down. They’re giving me pain killers, they’re giving me muscle relaxers to sedate me,” she describes. Despite taking the pain from a 20 to an 8, her medical staff encouraged her to go home. Monaleo had to advocate for her own care, and doctors eventually found a softball-sized cyst that had twisted, cutting off her blood flow and causing internal bleeding. She had to have emergency surgery and lost an ovary and a fallopian tube. “Imagine had they sent me home with a dead ovary and fallopian tube and internal bleeding that was pulling,” she emotionally details. “That’s actually life threatening, you can literally die.”
This experience is a clear example of medical gaslighting, which is a documented problem for Black women. Even in 2026, many Black women are still met with the dangerous stereotype that they have a higher pain tolerance or are exaggerating their symptoms. This bias leads doctors to downplay serious issues, contributing to the fact that Black women are three and a half times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. Reports from the CDC in 2026 also show that Black women often end up needing more invasive surgeries because their initial concerns were ignored or delayed.
These real-life struggles are often reflected in pop culture. For example, in the Grey’s Anatomy episode The Time Warp, we see a young Miranda Bailey as an intern caring for a patient with abdominal pain. Her boss, Dr. Baylow, dismisses the patient’s pain as a mental health issue and wants to send her home with a prescription for Prozac. Bailey refuses to give up and digs deeper into the patient’s history, eventually proving that the woman needed surgery. This storyline mirrors the real-world need for Black women to constantly fight to be heard by medical professionals.
This episode is also an example of how having Black representation in hospitals can create safer environments where Black women feel seen and heard. Black healthcare providers are often more aware of the cultural nuances and specific health risks that affect their community, making them less likely to rely on harmful stereotypes like the idea that Black women have a higher pain tolerance. In an interview with WDBJ7, Dr Cykeithia McPherson of Lynchburg, VA details her own struggles within the medical sphere saying, “When I was a patient myself I had a lot of hardship where I felt like I was dismissed on a lot of things. I was in the ED monthly for years.” She goes on to say that the professionals at the time would tell her she was fine and no effort for follow ups. Eventually she was diagnosed with endometriosis. “We need more Black representation in healthcare,” she says. “For the patients, for the population, as Black people we’re resilient people. Our ancestors fought for this so when I have hard days, I think about how somebody fought for me to be here.”
This representation leads to more empathetic listening and ensures that symptoms are taken seriously during the first visit. However, beyond just representation, there is a clear need for all medical professionals to actively believe Black women by prioritizing their reported pain over biased assumptions.
By using her platform to tell her story, Monaleo is urging other women to listen to their bodies and refuse to let their pain be treated as normal. As a long time mental health advocate with her Stay One More Day organization, she bridges the gap between physical health and emotional wellness reminding her community that advocating for your body is a vital form of self-care. In a system that often fails to provide adequate care, speaking up and demanding to be heard has become a necessary tool for survival.