Venus Williams has revealed that she has suffered from "extreme pain" caused by fibroids.
In a new interview with Zinhle Essamuah on NBC's Today, the tennis icon opened up about her struggle with fibroids - non-cancerous growths that develop in the muscular wall of the womb.
"My symptoms were extreme pain. You know, getting so much in pain that maybe you throw up," Venus shared. "Or you can't get off the ground ... I missed practices because of that. Just, you know, hugging the toilet."
The 45-year-old recalled lying on a locker room floor in agony before winning a doubles match with her sister, Serena Williams, in 2016.
"Like, it's gonna pass, it's gonna pass. And thank God Serena got the doctor," she remembered. "And I was able to get up and eat and start playing (which was) bad luck for our opponents."
Venus originally thought her painful symptoms were due to her previously diagnosed Sjögren's syndrome, which can cause issues such as swollen joints, shortness of breath and fatigue.
"I live with an autoimmune disease," she told Zinhle. "So I thought maybe it was autoimmune anemia or something like that. But really it was what I was dealing with inside, which was fibroids."
The sports star also shared that her symptoms had repeatedly been dismissed by doctors.
"One doctor told me (when I was 37) ... this is a part of aging. This is normal," she explained, adding that another doctor had suggested she have a hysterectomy to remove her womb. "I've never been so sad in my life."
She continued, "I had never been running to have kids but I always wanted to have a choice and to have that taken away is just frightening."
However, Venus eventually met Dr Tara Shirazian from the Centre for Fibroid Care at Langone Health in New York City. Dr Shirazian successfully extracted the fibroids without removing the uterus.
To conclude the interview, Zinhle asked Venus, who never officially retired from tennis, if she ever planned to return to the court.
"I'm not playing badly so you never know," Venus replied. "I've been taking this time to rest and recover and live my life and be, you know, a happy person without fibroids."
