Danielle Collins underwent surgery for endometriosis just last month; the American recovered in time to win her first-round match at this year's French Open at Roland Garros; she said: "Sometimes it can be very isolating because you feel alone and that you're dealing with these problems"
Sunday 30 May 2021 15:11, UK
Danielle Collins says she has been approached by women affected by endometriosis after the American tennis star opened up about living with the debilitating condition.
Collins had previously spoken about her wish to one day start a family, which is one of the reasons why she underwent surgery for endometriosis last month.
The world No 50, who last played a competitive match in Miami in March, recovered from going under the knife to make it to Paris for this year's French Open, defeated China's Xiyu Wang 6-2 4-6 6-4 to reach the second round of the tournament on Sunday.
Collins took to social media last month to announce why she was for undergoing surgery for endometriosis, which is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.
The American, who reached a career-high No 23, has suffered with it since graduating college in 2016. She says it is been gratifying hearing from women with similar issues.
"I've had a handful of different women that have reached out to me, friends, family, people that I don't know, that I've never met that have been affected by endometriosis," the 27-year-old said following her win at Roland Garros.
"It's been kind of nice to have that sense of community because I think when you're living with these types of things, sometimes it can be very isolating because you feel alone and that you're dealing with these problems.
"Sometimes there isn't a light at the end of the tunnel. So if I can ever be a friend to somebody and share my experience, hopefully that can offer them some knowledge or information that maybe they didn't know before.
"I was lucky to have a friend in my life that had endometriosis, and that helped me identify what I was dealing with. Yeah, I think just being able to talk about it with other women is empowering."
Collins, who will take on Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina for a place in the third round, feels like a great weight has been lifted off her shoulders since having surgery.
She has high hopes to destigmatise any kind of discussions around women's menstrual cycles.
The American said: "I think it's something that sometimes when we're dealing with these painful moments, we learn to accept it. And for me, things started to become too abnormal and really unhealthy, and it was causing a lot of havoc for me around that time.
"I also interestingly enough had some injuries pop up during that time, and so I think that maybe the endometriosis had something to do with that, just the hormonal like fluctuation. It certainly presented its challenges, but it's been really kind of shocking, since surgery I've just felt so much better, especially with my back pain. I'm not having any type of sciatic nerve pain, which I was dealing with for a couple of years.
"I consulted with my doctors and kind of had some misdiagnoses along the way. And so now I'm just kind of relieved to just be feeling good consistently and not having to always track and be like, 'Oh, like is this going to be a bad week? Do I have to kind of prepare my training around that or my tournaments around that?'
"It's just been a real weight that's been lifted off my shoulders since having the surgery because I kind of just in some ways got used to it and kind of thought that that was normal to be dealing with.
"I didn't realise that I would feel this much better after surgery, so I'm really relieved."
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