Porsha Williams revealed she underwent an emergency hysterectomy earlier this year that “saved my life.”
The “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star wrote in a Glamour essay published Friday that her doctor discovered over 15 large fibroids in her uterus during a fertility appointment about possibly freezing her eggs.
She also learned she had endometriosis and “another diagnosis involving the uterine lining.”
Williams, 45, said she was “stunned” and asked if she could avoid getting her uterus surgically removed, but her doctor insisted she needed a “partial” hysterectomy where she could keep her ovaries.
But during her surgery in May, Williams said doctors found 21 fibroids total, the largest one being “the size of a cantaloupe.”
“I woke up after the surgery and thought, ‘A part of me is gone,’” the Bravo star wrote. “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, who has a 7-year-old daughter, Pilar, with ex Dennis McKinley, said that she immediately began mourning her fertility after the procedure.
“I was 45 and headed toward perimenopause, and I didn’t want anything throwing my hormones off,” she wrote. “On top of it all was the pain of knowing I’d never carry another child, and that I couldn’t even have eggs retrieved for a surrogate. That door had officially closed.”
Williams shared that while she “didn’t have a choice about the hysterectomy,” the surgery has vastly improved her quality of life.
“I hadn’t realized the fibroids were behind my migraines, my low iron levels, or how stressed my body had been just from everyday life,” she said. “I’d also lost my ability to have sex, since the fibroids had grown large enough to close off more than 60% of my birth canal, and put my bladder at risk from their sheer weight.”
Later in her essay, Williams explained that now she’s “more present and grateful” for her daughter, whom she called “a true miracle.”
She added, “I’ve always called her my lifesaver, since she gave me my purpose, and now that feels even more true. I really was chosen to be her mom.”
During her interview with CBS Mornings on Friday, the “Traitors” alum said she’s sharing her story to encourage other women to advocate for their health.
“We have to stop diagnosing ourselves. There are so many different things when it comes to a woman that you need to get checked, and we need to learn to advocate for ourselves,” she told host Gayle King.
“If I saw somebody like me sitting here with you talking about fibroids, it would have clicked to ask for it. I had to ask my doctor to check for fibroids after something was wrong.”
Before welcoming her daughter in 2019, Williams revealed she suffered a miscarriage six years earlier.
The reality star split from McKinley in 2020, and went on to get married to Simon Guobadia in 2022. They got divorced three years later.
Williams has been dating Patrice “Sway” McKinney since last year.
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