On the latest episode of the SheMD podcast, model and actress Lori Harvey revealed that she spent years thinking something was “off” with her body, only to be repeatedly assured by her doctor that she was “fine.”
“I’ve been so frustrated. I’ve been going to my gynecologist because I’ve just been feeling like something’s off in my body,” Harvey told co-hosts Thaïs Aliabadi, MD, a celebrity ob-gyn in Los Angeles, and women’s health advocate Mary Alice Haney, on the episode. “But every time I go to her, she’s like, ‘You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine. Nothing’s wrong.’ And I was like, ‘But I don’t feel fine. I feel like something is just off.’”
Harvey said that it wasn’t until she was referred to Dr. Aliabadi that things changed. There, Harvey said she was told by Dr. Aliabadi that there were “quite a few things going on” with her body. She was diagnosed with the hormonal disorder polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis, a painful condition where the type of tissue that forms the lining of the uterus is found outside the uterus.
Harvey said she eventually realized she had been dealing with symptoms of both conditions since she was 16, noting that she would “blow up like crazy” after she ate, despite exercising regularly. The now-28-year-old also says she dealt with acne and facial hair, which are common symptoms associated with PCOS.
“I used to have the most excruciating periods of my life, every single time I felt like I needed to go to the hospital, just crazy cramps,” she said. “They’d be like, ‘Oh, just take some Tylenol, you’ll be fine.’ And I’m like, ‘There’s no way this is normal.’ And [Dr. Aliabadi] told me, ‘Yeah, babe, you’re right. It was not normal and I’m so sorry that you’ve just been living with this.’ So she literally changed my life.”
Unfortunately, Harvey’s story isn’t rare, Dr. Aliabadi, tells SELF. “I’ve had patients who have been to 50 gynecologists and not one person properly diagnosed them,” she says. “It’s because [endometriosis] affects women, not men.” But Dr. Aliabadi stresses that endometriosis isn’t a rare illness. “It’s one of the top causes of infertility for women on this planet,” she says. “This is not some zebra diagnosis.”
Endometriosis can be a debilitating condition—or it can be silent.
Symptoms of the condition include chronic pelvic pain that’s worse before and after your period, pain during sex, heavy periods, and even pain while you pee or poop, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). It’s also possible to have endometriosis with no symptoms, only to have it detected when you can’t get pregnant or when you’re having surgery for something else.
As Harvey pointed out, some women are told their symptoms are normal when they’re anything but. While Dr. Aliabadi says many women are aware that something is off with their body when they have endometriosis, she points out that it can be mentally defeating to be told you’re “fine” when you’re not. “A lot of patients have trauma,” she says. “They’re depressed because of years of pain.”
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