Porsha Williams Details Health Scare and Emergency Surgery

Porsha Williams is opening up about the medical condition that forced her to give up her dream of having another child.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta star revealed doctors discovered 21 uterine fibroids earlier this year, leading her to undergo an emergency partial hysterectomy.

In an essay published by Glamour on Sept. 18, Williams said she struggled with fibroids for years.

“I found out I had fibroids the same day I found out I was pregnant,” she wrote. “I was 30, trying for my first child, and dealing with fertility issues that had landed me with a specialist. The fibroid outgrew that pregnancy, and I ended up having a miscarriage at four months.”

Related: Porsha Williams Shares When She Knew Her Marriage to Simon Guobadia Was Over

Williams later welcomed her daughter, Pilar, in March 2019. But recently, she began experiencing heavy bleeding and other symptoms she initially believed were caused by perimenopause.

Instead, tests revealed the fibroids had returned.

Williams, 45, said doctors initially found more than 15 large fibroids in her uterus, along with endometriosis and another condition involving the uterine lining.

Her doctor told her she needed a hysterectomy and scheduled surgery for the following week.

The reality star underwent a partial hysterectomy, which allowed her to keep her ovaries while removing the uterus. During the procedure, doctors found a total of 21 fibroids. The largest was “the size of a cantaloupe,” she shared.

“I woke up after the surgery and thought, ‘a part of me is gone,’” Williams recalled.

“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,” she explained.

Williams struggled with the painful realization “I’d never carry another child, and that I couldn’t even have eggs retrieved for a surrogate,” she wrote. “That door had officially closed.”

She discussed her medical journey Friday during an interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings.

“I’ve always fantasized about having a little boy, or maybe a little sister for her,” Williams told King about her 7-year-old daughter.

She urged women to see their doctors and not to dismiss unusual symptoms.

“We have to stop diagnosing ourselves,” she said. “There’s so many different things when it comes to a woman that you need to get checked. And we need to learn how to advocate for ourselves.”

Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths that develop inside or around the uterus, according to the Cleveland Clinic. They can cause heavy menstrual bleeding, back pain, frequent urination and pain during intercourse.

Fibroids disproportionately affect Black women. The Black Women’s Health Imperative estimates about 80 percent of Black women and 70 percent of white women will develop fibroids by age 50.