Venus Williams’ account of years of untreated fibroid pain lays bare how Black women’s concerns are routinely minimized, even when they are world-famous athletes with access to “every doctor, every facility, every option.” The tennis star describes “crippling pain” that left her “laying on the floor in the locker room” and “hugging the toilet” during her menstrual cycle, yet doctors repeatedly told her that what she was experiencing was “normal” or simply “a part of aging.”
Her story echoes a broader pattern of racial health disparities in reproductive care. Fibroids are common noncancerous growths that, according to data cited in the piece, affect 80% of Black women before age 50, compared with 70% of white women, yet Williams was never told how large her fibroids were or why her symptoms were so severe. Instead, she endured pain, nausea, debilitating fatigue, and persistent anemia that required repeated iron transfusions, while one physician suggested a hysterectomy that left her “never been so sad in my life.”
Only after finding NYU Langone Health Center for Fibroid Care and undergoing surgery did Williams learn her fibroids were “as big as oranges.” Her doctor, Dr. Taraneh Shirazian, underscores the systemic failure: “Women do not get the care that they need for fibroid disease” and physicians simply need to listen when women describe their symptoms. By choosing to speak publicly, Williams says she was “outraged” she did not know this was possible and hopes others will realize, “I can get help. I don’t have to live this way.”
See: “Venus Williams reveals doctors dismissed her fibroid symptoms for years” (July 3, 2025)
