Star reveals emergency surgery

Porsha Williams told CBS Mornings that she underwent an emergency partial hysterectomy this year after doctors discovered twenty-one uterine fibroids, one the size of a cantaloupe.

“It all happened so fast. It really didn't hit me until I woke up in the hospital bed.”

Fibroids returned after earlier treatment

Williams had dealt with fibroids since her late twenties and previously underwent uterine fibroid embolization to shrink them without impacting her uterus, believing they were gone.

Symptoms dismissed as perimenopause

At forty-five years old, Williams attributed her symptoms of a long menstrual cycle, migraines and fatigue to perimenopause, not realizing the fibroids had returned.

“I'm 45 years old, and I'm thinking, oh, maybe perimenopause.”

Fibroids first found during fertility struggles

Williams first discovered fibroids when trying to have children. One fibroid outgrew her baby by four months, causing a miscarriage, but she later had a healthy daughter, Pilar, in two thousand nineteen.

Discovery at friend's fertility appointment

While accompanying a friend to a fertility appointment, Williams asked a doctor to examine her. The doctor found the fibroids had returned and referred her to a fertility specialist who was shocked by their number.

“She started looking into, you know, doing the exam, and she went silent.”

Williams urges women to advocate for themselves

Williams is sharing her story to encourage other women to seek medical checks and advocate for themselves. She says she had to ask her doctor to check for fibroids after something was wrong.

“We have to stop diagnosing ourselves. There are so many different things when it comes to a woman that you need to get checked.”