Venus Williams’ Battle With Sjogren’s Syndrome: Inside Her Autoimmune Disease Diagnosis

Tennis legend Venus Williams was diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome in 2011, and she gave fans an update about how she’s handled living with the condition during a September 2024 appearance on Good Morning America.

What Is Sjogren’s Syndrome?

It is a chronic autoimmune disease that “happens when your immune system damages the glands that produce and control moisture in your body,” the Cleveland Clinic‘s website explained. It added, that the “most common symptom is chronic, unusual dryness in your eyes and mouth.”

When Was Venus Williams Diagnosed With Sjogren’s Syndrome?

The five-time Wimbledon champ announced she had been diagnosed with the disease after its effects forced her with withdraw from the U.S. Open in 2011.

“I think I’ve had issues with Sjogren’s for a while. It just wasn’t diagnosed. The good news for me is now I know what’s happening,” Venus revealed to Good Morning America on September 1, 2011.

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“I had trouble with stamina,” she explained, adding that her symptoms became worse in the summer leading up to the grand slam event.

“I had swelling and numbness and fatigue, which was really debilitating. I just didn’t have any energy,” she continued. “And it’s not that you don’t have energy. You just feel beat up.”

Venus was thankful she was finally diagnosed with the autoimmune disease so she could start learning how to live with it.

“It’s a huge relief because as an athlete everything is physical for me — everything is being fit and being in shape,” she said. “I think the best thing that could have happened for me this summer was to feel worse so I could feel better.”

How Did Venus Williams Treat Living With Sjogren’s Syndrome?

While there’s no cure for the syndrome, there are treatments and medication so that patients can live a normal life.

“In the beginning, I just had to wait to get better,” Venus told Prevention in 2019. “One of the medications I had took six months to set in. There was another that took one to three months. It was kind of a waiting game until you can go back to what you had been doing.”

“Before I was on medication, the quality of my life wasn’t as good because I was extremely uncomfortable. Just being alive was very uncomfortable. I was exhausted to the point that I was just always uncomfortable or in pain,” she continued.

Along with medical treatment, Venus made Lifestyle changes including eating a vegan diet, which she maintains today.

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Venus Williams Had to Overcome the ‘Fear’ of Living With Sjogren’s Syndrome

During a September 9, 2024, appearance on Good Morning America to promote her new Lifestyle book, Strive: 8 Steps To Find Your Awesome, Venus opened up about life with Sjogren’s Syndrome.

As for her 2011 diagnosis, “It was a whole other thing for me, because I spent my whole entire life just pushing myself and ‘if you’ll work hard enough, you’ll get what you want.’ Guess what, all that’s out the window,” the four-time Australian Open champ revealed.

“So, I had to overcome fear, ’cause there’s so much fear when you don’t know what you can achieve and it’s out of your control. And how do you handle fear, how do you reframe it?” she continued. “How do you think about what you can achieve, but not what you can’t? Because there were a lot of things I couldn’t do — and not focusing on that and what I could contribute that day.”

“It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes it was a day-by-day thing of reminding myself that every day. I think it made me stronger and better and opened new ways of thinking for me,” Venus added. “So, it’s kind of like, we don’t ask for less challenges, we ask for more skills.”