Venus Williams, one of the most successful tennis stars and decorated athletes in history, has revealed that she has dealt with a painful medical condition most of her life.

Williams, who has four Olympic gold medals and seven Grand Slam titles, opened up about her painful struggle with uterine fibroids, noncancerous growths on the uterus that can cause heavy menstrual bleeding and discomfort.

“I remember playing my first French Open, at the time I was 16,” Williams told SELF. “Before the second round, I was waiting for my match and I was just hugging the toilet bowl. I was losing my lunch over period pains.”

Fibroids affect 40 percent to 80 percent of people with a uterus, and Black women are two to three times more likely to get them.

Williams revealed to NBC’s Zinhle Essamuah that before winning her sixth doubles match with sister Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2016, she 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.”

Williams would also constantly have to pack extra pads, tampons, underwear and clothes due to her heavy periods.

“I never had enough energy, most times, to play a real match the way I wanted to,” Williams told Essamuah.

Williams says she went undiagnosed for years until a gynaecologist confirmed she had fibroids in 2016, and that the only treatment option recommended to her was a hysterectomy, which she turned down.

She took prescription painkillers to manage the pain.

“I had those pills with me everywhere,” Williams said. “I could never be caught anywhere without my pain pills. Getting caught in that kind of pain is a disaster.”

While doing her own research, Williams eventually met Dr. Taraneh Shirazian, who last year performed a myomectomy, a surgical procedure that removes the fibroids while preserving the uterus.

The surgery was successful, and Williams said her quality of life has improved.

“As a patient, you have to be your own advocate,” she told SELF. “If you don’t know what’s wrong with you in the first place, you never even know to bring it up.”

(Photo of Venus Williams at the 2024 Fashion Awards in London in December 2024: Benjamin Cremel / AFP via Getty Images)