Hair “in parts we don’t want hair”... bloating… pain. Shruti Haasan tells Brut how she manages her PCOS symptoms.
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00:00It's always been a huge battle since I got my first period.
00:04I used to faint in school from pain and dehydration.
00:07And I still have friends who are like,
00:09oh, why is it so bad for you when I get my period?
00:11I just feel a bit hungry.
00:13And that's when they said, oh, wait, you have PCOS.
00:15We can see them in the scan.
00:17And you can't every time go and tell the director and producer,
00:20I don't know how to explain this to you, but I have really bad periods.
00:23Hi, this is Shruti Haasan for Brute.
00:30It's something I got diagnosed with when I was 26.
00:53So it's something I've lived with for over 10 years now.
00:56I didn't actually realize because I also have
01:00something called endometriosis and dysmenorrhea.
01:04So I was already having my whole bag of troubles,
01:08so to speak, to deal with on a monthly basis,
01:11including trying out different birth controls
01:14and then having the side effects of that.
01:17And birth control, not as a pregnancy preventive measure,
01:21but just to control pain, regularize periods.
01:24And so when I went in, it was just a regular ultrasound,
01:29which is part of checking my endometrial lining, really.
01:32And that's when they said, oh, wait, you have PCOS.
01:35We can see them in the scan.
01:37And my response was like, ah, great.
01:39One more thing to add to this list of complications.
01:43Periods.
01:44And it's not just the blood loss.
01:46I have extreme bloating associated with PCOS,
01:49like severe water retention and bloating.
01:52I also, some months more than others,
01:56have the issue of hirsutism, which is like excessive hair growth
02:01in parts we don't want hair, you know, it makes my monthly cycles
02:07quite painful as well.
02:08I had to change my entire workout routine because PCOS
02:12related weight gain was huge for me, like really huge,
02:17as well as making dietary changes and
02:20cutting out things like from my life, like alcohol and caffeine really helped.
02:25I am now for the past, I would say, over seven years on medication,
02:32especially for PCOS.
02:33There isn't a cure for PCOS.
02:39I've never had a fun day since the day I started my period.
02:43It's always been a huge battle since I got my first period.
02:48It was always a huge battle because of the copious amounts of pain.
02:53I used to faint in school from pain and dehydration.
02:56And I still have friends who are like,
02:57oh, why is it so bad for you when I get my period?
03:00I just feel a bit hungry.
03:01And I'm like, I wish, I wish, you know, because honestly,
03:05my journey through
03:08periods and menstruation has always been really,
03:11really challenging from my very first period.
03:14It's especially troublesome when I have to perform on stage
03:18or do a scene that requires a lot of strenuous physical work.
03:22And you can't every time go and tell the director and producer,
03:27I don't know how to explain this to you, but I have really bad periods.
03:30So it's been character building in the sense that you fight
03:34through the pain every month to get your basic day done.
03:39And I used to just pray that my shoots get cancelled on the first
03:42and second day of my period so I can just bed out and
03:45and like zone out and go through the pain.
03:48You know what I mean?
03:49I don't know about other jobs, but I do know that it is very complicated
03:52in my line of work to be able to say
03:56I'd like that period leave because it's just too many factors.
04:01When you're making a movie, it's lakhs or crores of rupees.
04:04It's 500 extra some day.
04:06It's other actors dates.
04:08Mostly I just grit my teeth and go through the storm, so to speak.
04:16A lot of women live through and with PCOS.
04:20A lot of women, a lot of women were like, my God, I've been suffering
04:25with all of this. Thank you for talking about it.
04:26But what was really sweet was
04:29I was on a apartment group and for the building that I live in.
04:35And a father on that group was like, oh, thank you for talking about this.
04:40My daughter suffers from PCOS and I'm so glad someone's talking about it.
04:44So that was really sweet.
04:45And it's also really nice to see a dad be supportive of something like this.
04:49Usually it's like this great divide between men and women
04:52and not just in society, but in parenting as well.
04:55You know, so I was really glad to see that it's being discussed.