Seven-time Grand Slam tennis champion Venus Williams has opened up for the first time about her long, silent battle with fibroids, a condition she says impacted her health, her sporting career, and her quality of life for years.
In an interview with NBC News aired on Thursday (3 July), Williams, now 44, shared how painful symptoms like intense cramps, nausea, heavy bleeding, and persistent anaemia, became a monthly struggle.
“I was hugging the toilet, waiting for it to pass,” she said.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist has also revealed that although she always knew she had fibroids, she never realised their size or severity. And doctors were not of great help either, as they constantly dismissed her pain as normal.
“As bad as things were for me, crazy amounts of bleeding like you couldn’t imagine … my doctors told me it was normal,” she said.