Academy Award-nominated actor Florence Pugh talks candidly about her journey with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis and how the diagnoses have affected her life and perspective on fertility. The 28-year-old actor was interviewed on the She MD podcast and shared his recent diagnosis to encourage more women to take their health seriously.
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“My life has completely changed…”
Speaking about her diagnosis, Florence said on the podcast: “My life has completely changed since I got the information… and in a great way because it means I really have to be on board and I really have to accept it’s a little more serious than I would have done.” feeling like I had to go and check things out. I had some weird dreams; I think my body was telling me,” she said.
Florence then met with gynecologist Dr. Thais Aliabadi, also the host of the podcast, to address her concerns and do some tests. It was from the gynecologist that Florence first learned that she needed to check her egg count. “She (Dr. Aliabadi) asked if I’d ever had an egg count and I said, ‘No, what do you mean?’ I’m so young. Why do I need to count eggs?”, she revealed.
When Dr. Aliabadi performed an egg count, she confirmed that the 28-year-old actor had PCOS and endometriosis and urged the actress – who was 27 at the time – to freeze her eggs if she plans to have children in the future. Pugh went on to say that the diagnosis came as a surprise because – “It was so surprising because my family are baby-making machines. When my mom had babies in her 40s, my grandmother had babies all the time. I just never assumed that I would be anything else and that there would be problems with it. It really wasn’t a red flag for me.”
“It’s such a simple conversation”
The diagnosis helped Florence to learn and tell her friend about it. “I was able to tell my friends about what I was going through. And since then, I think two or three of my friends have gone and gotten tested because of what I found, and they also found out that they were the same — she said.
The “Oppenheimer” actress also expressed sympathy for women who were diagnosed later in life. “I’ve wanted children since I was little,” she said, expressing how lucky she was to learn about PCOS and how to deal with it. “It’s such a simple conversation that we have to have when we start our period or when we start having sex. It really, really shouldn’t take that long for someone to find out about this diagnosis that they have no idea what it is,” she said.
