Olivia Culpo Revealed She Has “Excruciatingly Painful” Endometriosis for the First Time
"Painful periods are not normal," she said, urging followers to seek medical help.
On Thursday, Olivia Culpo opened up about a personal health battle. On her since-expired Instagram stories, the model and former Miss Universe revealed her endometriosis diagnosis for the first time. “I’ve never publicly said this before, but I have endometriosis. Aka the most excruciatingly painful cramps/period,” she wrote alongside a photo of her laying back on the coach with a heating pad on her stomach. “Anyone else reading this have Endo? No fun.”
Then, speaking to her 4.7 million followers via video, Culpo went on to describe what her experience with the disorder, which affects around 11% of people with uteruses and is greatly underdiagnosed. “It’s not so fun,” she says, as reported by the UK’s Daily Mail. “Very painful. There is obviously a surgery you can get for it that I don’t really want to get but [I use] lots of heating pads, [drink] lots of water, and [take] lots of Midol.” She also added that “baths are amazing to ease the pain.”
Culpo also urged her followers to pay attention to their own symptoms if they are also experiencing pain.
“If you are having very painful periods or you are not being diagnosed with what you think could be endometriosis, definitely do your research,” she said.
She also encouraged those who are experiencing a lot of pain to go to the doctor. ““Painful periods are not normal,” she explained. “You just want to make sure that everything is okay. If you do want to get pregnant, you just never know. You don’t want to wait [until it’s] too late.”
She continued: “If you don’t discover that you have this it could get in the way of fertility. You can have tissue growing in areas that you really shouldn’t have it, which could interfere with getting pregnant someday.”
Culpo tagged her personal OB-GYN, Dr. Thais Aliabadi, in one of her stories, saying that she “has a lot of information about Endo” on her page.
She went on, giving more reasons why those experiencing painful periods shouldn’t delay seeking medical attention.
“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 said. “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,” Culpo explained. “There would have been more options.”
“So, I feel like if you are someone out there with super painful periods, it is very important to take it seriously,” added Culpo.
Culpo is among a growing list of celebrities who have spoken publicly about their endometriosis diagnoses, including Lena Dunham, Julianne Hough, and Padma Lakshmi.
