MUMBAI: Bollywood actress Shamita Shetty has courageously opened up about her long-standing battle with endometriosis and the overlapping challenges of perimenopause. Appearing on actress Soha Ali Khan’s health-focused podcast, All About Her, the 47-year-old star shed light on the pervasive normalization of women’s reproductive pain and the emotional toll of a delayed medical diagnosis.
The Trap of Normalizing Pain
Shamita revealed that her symptoms went undiagnosed for an extended period because she initially brushed off the debilitating pain as a standard part of womanhood.
”Every time I experienced certain symptoms, I’d tell myself, ‘Maybe this is normal.’ So many things, whether it’s period pain or anything related to our hormones, are normalized for women. We’re just expected to live with them,” Shamita shared during the emotional conversation.
The actress noted that her initial routine checkups, including a Pap smear and basic gynecological tests, all returned normal results. Because the standard diagnostic tools failed to pinpoint the underlying issue, medical professionals didn’t look deeper, leaving her to believe the recurring pain was merely “part and parcel of being a woman.”
Hormonal Confusion and Surgery
The situation grew increasingly complicated when Shamita began experiencing the early stages of perimenopause—the transitional phase leading up to menopause. With severe hormonal fluctuations happening simultaneously, it became almost impossible for her to decipher which condition was causing her distress.
Known for having a high pain tolerance due to years of sports and fitness injuries, Shamita pushed through the discomfort until it began severely impacting her quality of life. The tipping point arrived six to eight months before her eventual surgery when the chronic pain began disrupting her sleep.
”When the pain started waking me up from my sleep, that’s when I realized something was seriously wrong. My body was trying to tell me that I needed answers,” she added.
A Message to Women
By sharing her harrowing experience, Shamita hopes to encourage women to advocate for their health, listen closely to their bodies, and refuse to suffer in silence from conditions that are routinely dismissed.
On the professional front, Shamita Shetty was last seen delivering a critically acclaimed performance in the 2023 coming-of-age theatrical drama The Tenant.
