Oscar-nominated actress Florence Pugh spoke candidly about her journey with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis, and how the diagnoses impacted her life and her outlook on fertility. The 28-year-old actor sat down for an interview with the She MD podcast and shared her recent diagnosis to encourage more women to take their health seriously.

(Also read | Shamita Shetty Undergoes Surgery for Endometriosis; all about the disease and how it can be treated)

“My life has completely changed…”

Speaking about her diagnosis, Florence said in the podcast“My life has completely changed since I found out about this… and in a great way, because it means I really need to be on the board, and I really need to take this a little more seriously than I would have done.” The actor discovered she had PCOS last summer (when she was 27) when she had a “sudden feeling” that she should get checked out. “I had this sudden feeling that I had to go and check everything. I had had some strange dreams; I think my body was telling me,” she said.

Florence then met a gynecologist, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, also host of the podcast, to address her concerns and do some analyses. It was at gynecologist that Florence learned for the first time that she needed to have her egg count checked. “She (Dr. Aliabadi) asked me if I had ever had an egg count done, and I said, ‘No, what do you mean?’ I’m so young. Why do I need an egg count?’” she revealed.

When Dr Aliabadi carried out the egg count, she confirmed that the 28-year-old actor suffered from PCOS and endometriosis and urged the actor – who was 27 at the time – to freeze her eggs if she planned to have children in the future. Pugh further stated that the diagnosis came as a surprise because: “It was so weird because my family is made up of baby-making machines. When mom had babies in her 40s, my grandmother had babies all the way through. I just never thought that I was going to be different in some way and that there would be a problem with that. This really wasn’t a red flag for me.

“It’s such a simple conversation.”

The diagnosis helped Florence find out more and talk to her friend about it. “I was able to talk to my friends about what I’m experiencing. And since then, I think two or three of my friends have gone to get checked because of my findings, and they also found that they I have the same thing,” she said.

The Oppenheimer actor also expressed sympathy for women who received their diagnoses later in life. “I’ve wanted kids since I was a kid,” she noted, expressing how lucky she was to have learned about PCOS and ways to deal with it. “It’s such a simple conversation that we should have when we start our period or when we start having sex. It really shouldn’t take someone so long to find out about this diagnosis that they have no idea what it is,” she said.