Venus Williams Opens Up About Doctor Dismissing Fibroid Symptoms For Years

Venus Williams recently recounted her gruelling experience with uterine fibroids. It all started in her adolescence, with aching cramps and nausea during her periods. She found herself "hugging the toilet, waiting for this to pass." However, the more painful part of this ordeal was dealing with medical professionals who told her these symptoms were "normal" among women her age. "It just got too bad, and I couldn’t handle it," she told the American media outlet, TODAY.

Williams later found out she had fibroids, which are noncancerous growths in and around the uterus, and adenomyosis, a condition where tissue like the lining of the uterus invades the uterine walls and causes pain, heavy bleeding and irregular periods. "It was something I had never heard of." However, doctors failed to identify how large they were or that they were related to her intense pain, nausea and persistent anaemia from heavy periods, which led to repeated iron transfusions.

The American tennis legend shared that she suffered through the pain for years. "I was outraged that I didn’t know this was possible. I didn’t know what was wrong with me," she said. Now 45, Williams has opened up about her condition and wants to raise more awareness about it, according to TODAY. "No one should have to go through this."

Venus Williams reveals fibroids diagnosis

Throughout Venus Williams' career, she maintained a status as an elite athlete, all while dealing with difficult periods. She said, "As bad as things were for me, crazy amounts of bleeding like you couldn’t imagine. My doctors told me it was normal. I never realised (anything) was wrong."

Williams said she used to bleed so much during her periods that she often wore multiple layers on the court, so if it seeped through her white gear, people would not notice. During training at Wimbledon in 2016, the pain was so excruciating that she could not eat.

When Williams went for medical tests, the results always revealed that she was anaemic. At first, she attributed it to her Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune condition which causes dry eyes and mouth along with muscle pain, fatigue and trouble swallowing, according to the experts.

At around age 37, doctors told Williams that her symptoms were "part of ageing" or joked that they were "natural birth control." While she underwent ultrasounds, doctors never told her about the fibroids. "I didn’t know that they were really big. They were growing and growing and growing."

Over the years, doctors suggested a hysterectomy, but Williams was not sure she wanted to undergo the dramatic procedure. "I wasn’t trying to have too many kids, but you never want those choices taken away. The feeling of that is really a nightmare," she expressed.

Williams said that the diagnoses were difficult to deal with, "I never had enough energy most times to play a real match the way I wanted to, and, of course, it affected my results." However, it did not stop her. "I was always going to play, even if it was a nightmare performance."

After years, Williams went to a fibroid specialist in New York, who suggested a myomectomy, a procedure that removes the fibroids from the uterus. "The procedure was more invasive than I had imagined, and I was so scared," she recounted. Since the surgery, Williams has been in better health.

Neglecting women's health

Venus Williams is just one of countless women whose pain, distress, and exhaustion are overlooked or misdiagnosed by medical professionals. According to a US study, women are 10% less likely than men to have a recorded pain score upon arrival, a critical step to gauge the severity of pain.

Moreover, women wait an average of 30 minutes longer than men to see a doctor and are less likely to receive pain medication. This gender bias in the medical system points to a broader issue of unconscious discrepancy, where women's health is trivialised or reduced to gendered diagnoses.

This also throws light on "medical gaslighting," situations where medical professionals employ a pattern of inquiries, examinations, or diagnoses that contradict or are unrelated to a woman's history or symptoms. Females are also more likely to be sent to psychologists and psychiatrists, while males are more likely to be investigated for a potential physiological reason.

Venus Williams' story is a reminder of the systemic failure in women's healthcare. Women still have to advocate relentlessly just to be believed, let alone treated. "I’m very passionate about this at this point because I know that other people can live better than what I lived," Williams said.

Views expressed are the author's own.