FLORENCE Pugh has urged women to checked after a shocking diagnosis saw her getting her eggs frozen aged just 27.
The Little Women star, now 28, star revealed three symptoms she’d assumed were “normal” before bizarre dreams prompted her to get a gynaecological checkup.
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Florence appeared on the SHE MD podcast, speaking to influencer Mary Alice Haney and Dr Thaïs Aliabadi, a gynecological surgeon who Florence with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
The usually private actress said: “I wouldn’t probably discuss any other funny things that I’ve found about my body, but my life has completely changed since finding out this information.
“And in a great way, because it means that I have to really be on the ball, and I have to really wake up and take my health a bit more seriously than I would have done.”
The 28-year-old said she’d experienced agonising periods that last up to two weeks as a teen, before having a copper coil fitted.
But she continued experiencing baffling symptoms as an adult, which she put down to “being a woman”.
“I had acne,” the Don’t Worry Darling actress told the podcast hosts.
“I definitely have hair that shouldn’t be in certain places. But I just thought that was part of being a woman, and also living a maybe slightly stressful life.”
Florence said she also experienced “constant weight fluctuation”.
She explained: “I’m someone that has never been the same size in my entire life.
“I’ve always gone up and down and up and down. And it’s never really been something that I’ve been hugely fussed by because it’s always just been a part of my life.
“I always eat well, and I exercise, and I just considered that was because, I have a curvy body and my mom has a curvy body and my sisters have curvy bodies and that’s just the way that we are.”
But after speaking to Dr Aliabadi, Florence found out that all her symptoms could be pegged to PCOS.
The common condition affects how ovaries work, causing irregular or absent periods and problems getting pregnant.
Sufferers can also experience physical symptoms such as excessive hair growth, weight gain, thinning hair and acne.
Research suggests that nearly 70 per cent of those with the hormonal condition haven’t been diagnosed.
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‘Mind boggling’
Florence discussed the bizarre circumstances that lead her to see a specialist.
She said: “I had this sudden feeling that I should go and get everything checked.
“I’d had a few weird dreams, I think my body was telling me.
“And I then asked my close friends if they knew any amazing gynaecologists.
“I went in to meet Thais for my appointment, and she asked if I’d ever had an egg count done and I was like, “no what do you mean? I’m so young. Why do I need an egg count?”
How does egg freezing work?
Egg freezing is a method of preserving fertility.
The optimum time to freeze your eggs is in your 20s to early 30s, as this is when your egg quality and quantity are at their best.
With age, both the health of your eggs and the quantity of remaining eggs decline, but it’s still possible to freeze your eggs when you are over the age of 35.
Before having your eggs frozen, you’ll have daily injections for about two weeks to help collect mature eggs – this is known as ‘stimulation’.
The injections can be started at any time in your menstrual cycle.
You might have your period during stimulation but this is normal. You might also feel tired, and have bloating or discomfort in your tummy.
Eggs will be collected in a small procedure while you are asleep, usually through the vagina.
Your eggs are frozen on the same day as the retrieval procedure. The fast-freezing technique we use is called vitrification.
Eight to nine out of 10 eggs are expected to survive after the freezing and thawing process.
To be used in the future, the eggs will be thawed out and injected with sperm to create embryos.
Sources: London Women’s Clinic, Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
Aside from PCOS, Dr Aliabadi also diagnosed the star with endometriosis and advised her to have her eggs frozen – this involves collecting and freezing eggs as a means to have a family in the future.
Speaking on the podcast, the gynaecologist explained that both PCOS and endometriosis can affect people’s ability to conceive.
“When [Florence] presented to me, she gave this long history of painful periods and luckily someone in London put a progesterone IUD in her, which helped relieve a lot of her symptoms .
“Endometriosis when untreated – in her case it was treated – can affect your egg count and quantity.
“I had diagnosed her with PCOS. So, PCOS patients have a lot of eggs but the quality goes down after 30.
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“When you have a patient with both possible diagnoses, you want to see where that egg count sits.”
Dr Aliabadi said she often starts having conversations about egg freezing with her patients after the age of 28.
Florence recalled being baffled at having to think about her fertility from the age of 27.
“It was just so bizarre because my family are baby making machines,” she pointed out.
“My mum had babies into her forties. My gran had babies throughout, she had so many kids as well.
“I just never assumed that I was going to be in any way different [or] that there was going to be an issue with it or that I had to think about it before I needed to think about it.
“It just really wasn’t a red flag for me, it wasn’t a worry.
“And then of course, I learned completely different information, at age 27, that I need to get my eggs out, and do it quickly, which was just a bit of a mind boggling realisation, and one that I’m really lucky and glad that I found out when I did because I’ve been wanting kids since I was a child.”
‘Let down’
Since Florence’s diagnosis, she said “two or three” of her friends have had similar symptoms checked out and discovered they have PCOS.
The actress said she felt “let down” about the lack of conversation about the condition.
She pointed out: “We ask young girls to keep mindful of the lumps in their breasts and, stay mindful about anything that may feel particularly strange there, but we just have no education on looking after what is going on inside us and the things that we can’t see and the things that we can’t feel and I feel so let down by the lack of conversation.
“I feel so let down for all of the young women that are going to find this out far too late and are going to find this out when they start to have children in their 30s.
Celebrities with PCOS
- Victoria Beckham was diagnosed with PCOS while trying to conceive her fourth child, Harper Seven.
- Frankie Bridge has opened up about suffering from irregular periods and cyst-y spots due to PCOS.
- Gemma Collins overhauled her diet and lifestyle to give herself the best chance of being a mum after being told PCOS could make it difficult to get pregnant.
- After years of suffering from adult acne, Keke Palmer was diagnosed with PCOS.
- Daisy Ridley has both endometriosis and PCOS.
- Like many women, Sasha Pieterse said she had never heard of PCOS being doctors confirmed it was causing her metabolism issues.
- “It’s been a great agony for me,” said Emma Thompson on the “painful” condition.
- Jools Oliver has shared her experiences of pregnancy loss and living with PCOS.
“It wouldn’t be that hard to educate everybody on this when you’re at school. It’s something that will be the defining factor of whether you can have children or not.
“And if you have a dream of maybe one day being a mum, these things are so important, much like learning how to find lumps in your breast.”
The actress urged other women to get similar symptoms checked out.
“It’s just really not in our culture here in England to be having a gynaecologist that you go and [see] frequently and to be worried before you need to worried,” she explained.
“I had a bit of a worry last summer and I just wanted to go and get things checked out and then we ended up finding information that I probably wouldn’t have known until I started having kids in another five years.”
