Venus Williams reveals battle with fibroids left her ‘on the locker room floor’ before Wimbledon

US tennis star Venus Williams has opened up about her battle with a condition so debilitating it left her unable “to get off the ground”.

Venus Williams has opened up about the painful heath condition that left her “laying on the locker room floor” before Wimbledon.

The 45-year-old tennis ace shared her battle with fibroids, non-cancerous tumours that grow in the muscular wall of the uterus.

“My symptoms were extreme pain. You know, getting so much in pain that maybe you throw up. Or you can’t get off the ground … I missed practices because of that. Just, you know, hugging the toilet,” Williams told NBC’s Today Show.

The seven-time Grand Slam winner said at first she was dismissive of the symptoms and simply put up with them, revealing she suffered a bad episode before winning her sixth doubles match with sister Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2016.

Venus Williams has opened up on her battle with fibroids. Picture: Getty Images

“(I was) just laying on the floor in the locker room. Like, it’s gonna pass, it’s gonna pass. And thank God Serena got the doctor. And I was able to get up and eat and start playing (which was) bad luck for our opponents,” she said.

Williams also has Sjogren’s syndrome, a condition she made public in 2011, which only delayed her diagnosis.

“I live with an auto-immune disease. So I thought maybe it was auto-immune anaemia or something like that. But really it was what I was dealing with inside, which was fibroids,” she told Today.

She had previously been diagnosed with fibroids but doctors who monitored the growths using ultrasounds never identified how large they were – nor did they link them to her pain.

Venus revealed in 2011 that she has the auto-immune condition Sjogren’s syndrome. Picture: AFP

Small fibroids are usually painless, but larger growths can cause pain, swelling, excessive bleeding, GI issues, and bloating, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

“I didn’t know that they were really big,” Williams said. “I didn’t know that they were growing and growing and growing.”

Williams said her bleeding was so heavy at times that she often wore layers to prevent a bleed-through.

“One doctor told me (when I was 37) … this is a part of ageing. This is normal.”

Another told her to get a hysterectomy.

“I’ve never been so sad in my life,” she recalled.

Venus during her second round match against Lin Zhu of China on day four of the 2023 ASB Classic Women's in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Getty Images

The tennis ace is hoping to raise awareness about fibroids. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

“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.”

She eventually connected with Dr Tara Shirazian from NYU’s Langone Health’s Center for Fibroid Care, who performed a myomectomy on Williams a year ago.

The procedure removed the fibroids while keeping the uterus intact.

“I’m sharing now because I was outraged that I didn’t know this was possible. I didn’t know what was wrong with me,” Williams said. “No one should have to go through this.”

Meanwhile, Williams hinted at a return to the court saying she is “not playing badly so you never know”.

“I’ve been taking this time to rest and recover and live my life and be, you know, a happy person without fibroids,” she said.