Key Takeaways
- Porsha Williams thanked fans in an Instagram post on September 18 shortly after revealing details of her emergency partial hysterectomy which occurred this past May.
- Doctors discovered 21 fibroids during Williams' surgery, including one being the “size of a cantaloupe.”
- The Real Housewives of Atlanta star has mistaken her symptoms for perimenopause until a fertility appointment exam until a fertility appointment.
Porsha Williams had a successful recovery from an emergency surgery to remove multiple fibroids, and months later, she’s telling fans all about it.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star posted a thank-you note to Instagram on Friday (September 18) hours after she initially shared details about the May procedure.
"Thank you for all of the love and support today. My heart is so full," Williams wrote. "I just pray that by being brave enough to share my loss, my journey through surgery, and my new quality of life, my story will inspire women to take charge of their health and their bodies."
The 45-year-old closed the message by sharing empathy with her followers who shared stories about their similar health journeys. "Please know that you are seen, heard and never alone. I love you all and thank you to my family and my partner for your support,” she concluded.
In a new story for Glamour, the reality television star detailed that the surgery removed her uterus but preserved her ovaries. Doctors found 21 fibroids during the procedure, the largest the size of a cantaloupe.
An MRI beforehand had picked up 15 large fibroids along with endometriosis and a diagnosis involving her uterine lining. Williams mistakenly thought her symptoms of heavy periods, migraines and fatigue were due to perimenopause.
"I had symptoms but, you know, I'm 45 years old, and I'm thinking, ‘Oh, maybe perimenopause,’" Williams told Gayle King on CBS Mornings this week.
The discovery came when Williams accompanied a friend to a fertility appointment about freezing her eggs, where the RHOA star also requested an exam.
"She went silent and I looked at the screen and all I could see was like black and then I started seeing some circular lines and I'm like, 'Not again,'" Williams said.
The fertility specialist that Williams was referred to scheduled her to get an MRI, and two weeks later, she was in surgery. Williams learned she had them the same day she found out she was pregnant at 30, and a fibroid outgrew that pregnancy, leading to a miscarriage at four months. A myomectomy came a year later, although the growths returned during her pregnancy with daughter Pilar, who Williams delivered in 2019.
"I woke up after the surgery and thought, 'A part of me is gone,'" she said. "Fibroids aren't something we usually talk about as women, and neither are hysterectomies. There's a stigma to it, as if you're somehow less of a woman without your uterus."
Williams now wants woman to seek medical expertise rather than lean on often incorrect self-assessments. "We have to stop diagnosing ourselves," she said. "We need to learn to advocate for ourselves."
