Posts Tagged ‘endometriosis’

Padma Lakshmi’s Hidden Health Scare

April 20th, 2009

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi is beautiful, talented and, for the last few years, has been hiding a painful secret–literally.

Three years ago, Padma was diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition that affects the lining of a woman’s uterus. Now she is talking to OK! about hiding her severe pain, her five surgeries and how it has affected her life.

"I didn’t know I had endometriosis. I was rushed to the hospital for a surgery three years ago," Padma tells OK!. "It affects your hormones and really profoundly affected every part of my life. I didn’t know how much it affected my life until I was free from it and healed."

 

There were times, she adds, that she "had to cancel jobs as a model because I was just like in pain."

Padma went on of course to become the host of the top rated Bravo reality show Top Chef. But it wasn’t without a lot of work–on herself.

"I’ve had five surgeries," she tells OK!. "Last year I actually had a surgery and on that following Wednesday, I was still a little swollen because they shoot your belly up with saline water so they can see everything. But I did the A-List Awards. I was on TV and on the red carpet like, five days later."

Padma is gearing up to host the first annual Blossom Ball, to benefit the Endometriosis Foundation of America. it’s aimed at educating women and their doctors about the taboo subjects regarding the condition.

 

Speaking of her own battle, Padma tells OK!, "literally, my libido was really down, and that’s something that women don’t want to talk about. I know I don’t want to talk about it, especially because I’m in the public eye and it’s my personal life. But now we’re hoping to raise media attention. In our mother’s generation we didn’t have the technology to diagnosis and treat it. But now we certainly do."

Reporting by Laura Lane


Julianne Hough to Leave DWTS

November 20th, 2008

After a season marked by a hospital visit and subsequent surgery for endometriosis, dance pro Julianne Hough has announced that this season was probably her last on Dancing With the Stars in the future.

 

"I’m not going to be back next season," she confirmed this morning to Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS FM show. "That’s final."

 

However Julianne, who was voted off the show Tuesday along with partner Cody Linley, insists her health issues are not at the center of her decision.

 

"It’s because I really, really want to focus on the music and… be taken seriously a little bit," she says, "and I think it’s hard to be on Dancing With the Stars and be singing and kind of get that confusion, and so I’m really going to focus on the music."

 

Julianne is a successful country musician in addition to her dancing talents, and it’s the music that will keep her going after she leaves what Ryan calls, "the mother ship" of the popular reality show.

 

"The music is where I want to be so you got to do what you got to do to get there," she reveals.

 

For more on Julianne’s decision, tune in to E! News at 7pm and 11pm, ET/PT.

Julianne Hough “Up and Back”

November 11th, 2008

Julianne Hough is one tough lady! After undergoing surgery for endometriosis, which kept her out of competition on Dancing with the Stars, the bombshell announced on her fancast.com blog on Tuesday that she’s ready to come back.

"Just so you know, I’m up and back and sick of sitting on the couch," she writes. "I just did my radio phoners and I’m going to see Cody [Linley] right now. We’re going to practice today for about half an hour with Len in his master class."

Of her surgery, Hough says, "My surgery was good. It was scary. It was supposed to take an hour but took 45 minutes longer. It was a good thing I went in because not only did I have the endometriosis things that needed to be lasered off, but I had a cyst on an ovary and scarred tissue from my appendix that had connected to my right hip. But everything went well and I feel great. I feel like I have more energy than I did a few weeks ago."

Hough says she can’t wait to get back to dancing with her DWTS partner, Cody Linley, but admits fellow pro Edyta Sliwinska has done a wonderful job.

"Edyta is doing a great job with him," she says. "I think his charisma and humor is coming off and people are loving him. I was on the floor laughing last night during his solo. I thought one of my stitches was going to pop out!"

 
Hough adds, "As for dancing, Sunday was the turning point. Last night I was doing some stuff and it felt great. Watch the show tonight–there’s going to be a surprise!"

 

 

Julianne’s Painful Struggle

November 4th, 2008

Less than a week after undergoing surgery following her collapse backstage at Dancing with the Stars, Julianne Hough is opening up to E! News about the medical condition she now says she’s battled "for a while."

Hough, 20, revealed to Samantha Harris that she suffers from Endometriosis, a condition affecting the lining of a woman’s uterus.  The always smiling Julianne says she’s put up with abdominal pains for about five years, but only recently felt that it had gotten serious.

"I didn’t want this whole drama with, like, the cameras filming you," Hough said. "I kept going through the show and I was just kind of quiet, and through the show it just kept getting worse and worse."

On Oct. 21, Hough was rushed to the hospital following an elimination show to which she explains: "Right after the show I came back and just curled up in a ball, and I was just sobbing…And there were cameras and I’m like, ‘I love you guys, but I did not break my foot.’ I was like, ‘This is something personal, do not film this.’"

Julianne says she told doctors initially that she wanted to wait on surgery and finish out the season of DWTS, but doctors recommended that she have the procedure done now–a decision she is happy she made.

"It’s actually a really good thing I did," she says. Hough’s boyfriend, country singer Chuck Wicks, has been there for her the entire time, offering his support. "When somebody can take care of you and really wants to care of you, instead of someone taking care of you because they have to, you can tell they’re a keeper."

As for her future on DWTS, Hough says she hopes to be strutting her stuff on the dance floor very soon.

"I want to be back this week, but it may be another week just because we don’t want to anything to rupture or the stitches to fly out," she says.

Despite her initial anxiety about coming forward with her experience, Hough says she did it to help other women."I’ve always been honest, and I think it can help other girls who ignore pain," she says. "You don’t have to ignore pain."

Julianne Wants a Hough vs. Hough Final

October 28th, 2008

After complaining of stomach pains last week, Julianne Hough has revealed she’ll be undergoing surgery. Initially it was announced that the Dancing With the Stars pro would be having an appendectomy, but on a blog on FanCast.com, she opens up to fans to let them know she’s also been diagnosed with endometriosis.

 

"It turned out I ruptured a cyst that was on my ovary," she writes. "I didn’t know but I have endometriosis. I’ve apparently had it for a long time because I’ve had this pain for about the last five years. It hasn’t been as bad. Up till last week, I let it go and I was always too busy to get it checked out. But because it happened when I was on set, they made me go to the doctor."

 

The surgery will also clean out the ruptured cysts, in addition to removing her appendix, just to be safe. Julianne also confesses that endometriosis runs in her family – her mother and sister both had it – and urges other women to get checked out.

 

"I want to be a good role model. I want to be honest," the dancing star writes. "Maybe some girl out there won’t wait too long like I did. I’m just glad I’m taking care of it now because I want to have babies some day. I don’t want to jeopardize my health."

 

As for the competition, Julianne agrees with a fan who wants the DWTS final to come down to a faceoff with her and Cody Linley dancing against Brooke Burke and her brother, Derek Hough.

 

"I hope it happens!," she writes, although she won’t be dancing for another two weeks. "Brooke has been a frontrunner from the beginning, and I think Cody has shown what this show is about. We’ll see."

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