Jaime King recalls support for uncovering PCOS diagnosis through Lena Dunham’s ‘Panic and Shame’

Jaime King is a “warrior” and his friend Lena Dunham reminded him of this when he “paniced” before sharing his PCOS diagnosis with the world.

A decade ago, women rarely spoke publicly about their personal health issues, especially when it came to reproductive health. Today the stars liked Jaime King† Lena Dunham† Julianne Hough† Chrissy Teigen and yet others have brought women’s health conversations to the fore, letting women know they have the resources to do so. However, when Jaime decided to go public with his PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) and endometriosis diagnoses in 2014, “no one talked about it” and was “too scared” to share the truth, the actress admitted. HollywoodLife podcast.

“I was going to make the cover People Magazine I was in a state of pure, naive panic to talk about my trip and a month before I left,” Jaime recalled. “I actually called Lena Dunham and said, ‘I’m going crazy. And he said, ‘You must be a warrior. You have to be a warrior for your speech and no one talks about it and you are brave enough to do it, keep doing it for all of us. You have an army of women around you to support you.'”

Jaime, who had five miscarriages and welcomed her son James before she became naturally pregnant in 2013, said she felt “embarrassed” and worried about public perception. “Women are taught, consciously or unconsciously, that our only ability is to have children. It’s something we can do, that men absolutely cannot do, and it’s like our main job was to raise an ‘heir’ and I was afraid to really speak up,” she said. I thought, ‘I’ll be.

PCOS, a hormonal condition that causes enlarged ovaries with small cysts on their outer edges, can cause natural conception problems and extreme pain, especially during ovulation. Endometriosis, which Jaime was diagnosed with after 8 years of excruciating pain, is a condition in which the tissue that normally makes up the uterus grows outside of the uterus, causing extreme discomfort.

“It can be extremely debilitating and can affect every area of ​​your life, your partnerships, your relationships,” explains Jaime. “The thing is, you can’t tell from the shape of the body, or how it affects the body, or the way inflammation in the body. They’re like silent diseases and they’re terrible.”

Since sharing her diagnosis in 2014 and welcoming her second child in 2015, Jaime has continued to use her platform to share her experiences with PCOS and Endo and connect women with supportive resources. She recently joined Allara Health, the industry’s first chronic care platform for women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), as investor and impact director.

“Allara is the first online health platform where you can meet all your needs at the same time. It’s a community where you can get support: you have doctors, they work with nutritionists, they work with life coaches,” Jaime explained. “I invested in this company and started working as Impact Director because I really wanted to educate, raise awareness and support women”.

He continued: “Marginalized communities in particular do not have access to the healthcare they need, and diagnosis requires a lot of money and a lot of resources when most people don’t have it. It just needs a change in the system. It’s so broken. It’s very fragmented. And every woman deserves to be treated, seen and listened to,” she said. For more information visit Allara Salute.