Endometriosis and celebrities, let’s talk about them for a second. But first, I can’t be the only one fascinated by celebrity culture, can I? I mean if I had any say in Hollywood’s Emmy nominations, I’d be handing out awards to publications such as People and TV shows like E-news.
Both help to ease my stress after a long day of Zoom meetings; they also make my favourite celebrities seem like my BFF. Hello! I know that’s not by accident. That’s the deliberate intention of celebrity culture.
You and I are invited through visual and social media, to believe we know celebrities intimately. In exchange for this intimacy, celebrities get social power, and heck, even more millions. And I’m not just talking about the number of fans!
Celebrity culture promotes an exchange, albeit an unequal one. We get to be intimate voyeurs of their lives; free to judge them, empathise with them, and /or laugh and cry (sometimes we do both) at their triumphs and misfortunes.
Infertility and Celebrity Culture
As a fertility blogger I have a love-hate relationship with all of this. For instance, when I see a 48-year-old actress beaming on the cover of, you guessed it, another celebrity magazine, new baby in hand, 25 pounds lighter than when she first gave birth four weeks ago (yes, I’m judging) and talking about the joys of motherhood, I can’t help but think: “Is she selling a false narrative to her voyeuristic BFFs?”
“Why doesn’t she say she had an egg donor,” my brain mutters to itself, “or is she going to admit to freezing her eggs?”
Sadly, many celebrities miss the opportunity for shared conversation and learning.
1 in 10 Women
On the other hand, some celebrities are brave enough to share their real lives and talk about the truth about living with endometriosis. One out of every ten women is an endo warrior, fighting this serious disease that occurs when tissues such as the endometrial tissue that lines a woman’s womb, grow outside the uterus. Most of the time endo goes undiagnosed because it’s highly misunderstood.
So I totally love it when social media influencers and celebrities build endometriosis awareness to help other women. These endo warriors are vocal about their endo and don’t suffer in silence. My love/ hate relationship with celebrity culture gets rebalanced. I fist pump and say “ Do Your Thing, Girl!”
Related: 10 Essential facts you need to know about Endometriosis
Here are 4 Celebrity Endo Warriors We Love
1. Chrissy Teigen and Her Endometriosis Journey
Chrissy Teigen is known for her unfortunate and provocative clap backs and her sensational cooking skills documented in her book, Cravings. She is also an endometriosis advocate. Way back, in 2012, four months after she had a miscarriage, she gathered the courage to go on Twitter. She used the platform to inform her fans that she would be undergoing surgery to treat endometriosis. And was brave enough to ask other endo warriors what they do during recovery. She shared all the steps before her laparoscopic excision surgery. In her Instagram Stories she posted a selfie at the hospital with the caption: “Endometriosis surgery please end this pain lol.”
What I liked:
During her healing process, Chrissy continued to share progress updates on how hard the healing process actually was. She said while her belly felt numb, and coughing was very hard, both were not as bad as the endometriosis pain. After surgery, Teigen posted selfies on Twitter of both her scars and bandaged abdomen.
How Fans Responded:
It triggered other endo warriors to share images from their own surgeries, building community while driving millions of eyeballs to the conversation.
2. Amy Schumer Gets Transparent and Funny
Amy Schumer is a famous comedian and she has been bold and serious about creating endometriosis awareness. In December of 2019, on Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy podcast, she shared that she needed a C-section to deliver her son because of endometriosis.
What I liked:
Amy also took to her Instagram page to talk about the lack of endometriosis funding. In one post, she wrote that she was still pregnant and puking because there wasn’t enough money invested in medical studies for women, such as endometriosis. “The money,” she claimed, rather cheekily “goes to other things instead, like men who are not getting erections.”
How Fans Responded:
Amy’s whole C-section process was harder and took longer than expected. She shared that it was supposed to last one and a half hours, but took three hours because of her endometriosis. Fans applauded her transparency and Instagrammed what their delivery process was like as well.
3. Whoopi Goldberg is an Endometriosis Awareness Activist
Whoopi Goldberg is a comedian, talk show host, and actress. She is also an endo warrior who was diagnosed with the condition over 40 years ago. Whoopi always expresses gratitude that she found a doctor who diagnosed her early enough and helped treat it.
She also lamented even her daughter, hadn’t heard about the disease.
What I liked:
Using her status as a popular celebrity, Whoopi has made it her mission to become an endometriosis activist. At an Endometriosis Foundation’s Blossom Ball she said: “In order to achieve success with endometriosis treatments, more women should hear about it.”
Goldberg went on to say that no religious group would be unhappy if people discussed it. “If there isn’t enough awareness created, many women might end up undiagnosed and unable to have children. They might also die because the disease can lead to something more severe, “ she says.
4. Tia Mowry-Hardict: Few Women of Colour were Talking about Endometriosis
The actress spent more than a decade going through several surgeries and dealing with extremely painful symptoms. This led her to write an essay for WomensHealthMag.com. The essay talked about her experience with endometriosis, especially what it’s like to be a black woman with the condition.
What I liked:
What inspired Tia Mowry-Hardict to come out and speak about endometriosis? She was one of the few celebrities of colour dealing with the disease in a public way. According to Tia, “I had never seen any African American woman in the public eye discussing endometriosis.” The struggle of not being able to get pregnant seemed to be hidden under a blanket of shame.
“It gets a little tough when you have a disease, and no one else is talking about it or sharing the hope they may be feeling. “
Many women complain that it feels like they are alone, so most women opt to suffer in silence, just like Tia did before coming out to talk about it.
How Fans Responded:
Tia often uses her Instagram account to bring awareness to the unfairness involved in the treatment of black women with endometriosis. Other women of colour also share their own stories publicly providing hope to other endo warriors via Tia’s Instagram account. The actress admitted that dietary changes, as well as a focus on her health, enabled her to become a mother of two.