Olivia Culpo revealed her Endometriosis diagnosis this past week and wants others to listen in and closely.
This past Wednesday, Aug. 26, Culpo revealed her diagnosis on social media. “I’ve never publicly said this before but I have endometriosis,” she wrote on her Instagram Story. “Aka the most excruciatingly painful cramps/periods. Anyone else reading this have Endo? No fun.”
Endometriosis is a condition where tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus on the ovaries, Fallopian tubes, or intestines — which causes pain and issues with menstruation.
After revealing her diagnosis, Culpo went on to share: “I can’t believe that a lot of you also suffer from endometriosis,” she said. “It is so not fun, very painful.”
And while Culpo did note that there is the option of surgery, she admits she does not really want to get it — instead, using heating pads, water and “lots of Midol, honestly,” to fight off the pain.
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The 28-year-old went on to reveal just why seeking out an official diagnosis can make a massive impact on your future if you plan to have children.
“The thing I’m gonna say about endometriosis that I just think is really important is if you are having very painful periods and you are not being diagnosed with what you think could be endometriosis, definitely do your research because if you don’t discover that you have this, it could get in the way of your fertility,” she urged. “You could have tissue growing in areas that you really shouldn’t have that would interfere with maybe getting pregnant some day, your eggs could be getting damaged.”
She continued on, saying: “Definitely go to your doctor if you have painful periods. Painful periods are not normal. You just want to make sure that everything is ok if you did want to get pregnant. You just never know. You don’t want to wait too late, so I want everyone to take that seriously.”
In addition, Culpo recalled stories she had heard from her doctor about women who were unable to get pregnant and may have unknowingly had endometriosis.
“The reason why I’m so passionate about talking about this is because my doctor tells me about people who come to her in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s about not having been able to have kids,” she shared. “The thing that’s so sad about that is because they may have had endometriosis that may have affected their fertility in some way and if they had caught it earlier, they could have frozen their eggs. There would have been more options.”
“I just feel like if you’re someone out there with super painful periods, it’s very important to take it seriously,” she said, “and just figure out what your egg count is and then maybe look into other options if you have to.”
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