While appearing on a Tuesday episode of SheMD, a health and wellness podcast hosted by Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney, Lori Harvey got candid about her polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis diagnosis.

According to People, the 28-year-old said she’d felt “gaslit” by doctors who she claimed ignored the “excruciating” symptoms she was experiencing, including painful periods, weight gain, acne and abnormal facial hair.

Read on for more about her diagnosis and how her health is now.

Harvey tried to inform doctors of her symptoms for years

Harvey told Aliabadi and Haney that she tried to inform doctors of her alarming symptoms for years.

“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,” she said. “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 things changed when she was referred to Aliabadi, who’s an OB-GYN based in Los Angeles. Aliabadi took her seriously, finding “quite a few things going on” with her body.

Soon thereafter, she was diagnosed with PCOS and endometriosis. PCOS is a hormone imbalance that can cause a wide array of symptoms like “irregular menstrual periods, excess hair growth, acne and infertility,” Cleveland Clinic reported. It’s a common condition affecting up to 15% of females of reproductive age.

According to the World Health Organization, endometriosis is a reproductive condition “in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus.” The condition “can cause severe pain in the pelvis and make it harder to get pregnant.”

Harvey recalls her health journey feeling ‘sad and very disheartening’ before meeting Aliabadi

Harvey’s diagnoses made her realize that she had struggled with both conditions’ symptoms since she was 16 years old. She didn’t know how severe they were and that they should be taken seriously. She recalled her weight fluctuating throughout her life and how she would “blow up like crazy” every time she ate something. All the while, struggling with acne, rosacea and facial hair.

“I was like, what’s happening?” she said. “I’m like, okay, something is not adding up here. My body’s trying to tell me something, but I’m not getting the answers that I need.”

Before meeting Aliabadi, Harvey remembers her health journey being “sad and very disheartening.”

“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. I’m taking 800 milligrams of Ibuprofen. Nothing is working, it’s just debilitating,” she explained. “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 [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.”

Harvey’s struggles hint at a bigger problem in health care

During the episode, Aliabadi said Harvey’s struggles hint at a bigger problem deeply embedded in the health care industry. Women are often ignored and dismissed by doctors when they bring up troubling symptoms, which is the reason why the OB-GYN started the SheMD podcast.

“We’re talking about Lori Harvey,” she said. “That’s what hurts me. That’s why I have you guys come here. Because if you cannot get someone to listen to you and diagnose you correctly, do you think other women have a chance? They don’t.”

Since her diagnosis, Harvey has made a point to educate herself, her mother and friends on PCOS and endometriosis.

“So many of my friends struggle with PCOS, and it’s something that none of us were educated on, and we all kind of were just suffering in silence because we didn’t know what it was,” she said. “We’re just kind of all living with this thing and nobody’s getting treated for it.”

Aliabadi described it as a “silent epidemic,” similar to menopause, a condition that is also subject to shame and stigma.

“As women, it’s so normalized for us to kind of just suffer in silence,” Harvey said. “And when you keep telling these doctors, who are supposed to be there to help you, that you don’t feel right and something’s off, and they keep telling you you’re fine, it’s almost like you’re getting gaslit, you know? You start questioning yourself.”

She continued, “I think this is a very, very important conversation because so many of us are suffering with it, and we all need to be heard. Everybody should be able to feel at home in their body.”

How is Harvey’s health now?

With Aliabadi’s support, Harvey started taking Metformin, a medication typically for diabetics that helps lower blood sugar levels. The Fight Night: Million Dollar Heist actor said the medication has “completely changed my life.” She shared that her hormones are finally leveled and she can now eat and work out normally. Harvey also noted she’s not gaining or losing weight at “alarming” rates.

“I feel good in my body finally for once,” she said. “And I feel like what I should have been feeling like at 16.”

Harvey added that she’s “never felt more at home in my body than I do now.”

PCOS

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