'Pretty Little Liars'’ Sasha Pieterse Says It Was 'Disheartening' Gaining 70 Lbs. at Age 17 Due to PCOS
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"I'd never heard of PCOS before,” recalled the actress, now 27
Sasha Pieterse is opening up about gaining 70 lbs. within one year as a teenager due to PCOS, or polycystic ovary syndrome.
During an appearance on the latest episode of The Squeeze podcast — which is hosted by Taylor Lautner and his wife Taylor Dome Lautner — the 27-year-old shared how she was experiencing symptoms of PCOS long before she received a diagnosis.
"This is part of the health issues that I was speaking of while I was going through Pretty Little Liars," Pieterse said. "The changes that were happening to me were documented on camera."
"I never had a regular period ever and I was just always told by gynecologists that I was just young. Like, ‘Don't worry, it'll regulate,' ” she recalled, noting that it never did. “When I turned, it was probably around 15-16, that I started noticing a difference in just my metabolism in general. At 17, I gained 70 lbs. in the year, for no reason. There was no explanation for it."
Pieterse said she visited “over 15 gynecologists” but felt like she wasn’t being heard, with one doctor even claiming she was lying about the weight gain and that she must be eating unhealthy and making poor lifestyle decisions.
"It was the most frustrating experience and disheartening because no matter what I did, no matter how well I behaved, no matter how great I treated my body, things were actually getting worse rather than better, it was very very confusing," she explained. "So after a long process, someone recommended that I go to an endocrinologist."
The Perfectionists actress was then diagnosed with PCOS, a hormone imbalance that affects one in 10 women of childbearing age. The condition can cause symptoms like irregular periods, excess hair growth, acne, weight gain and infertility.
"I was like, 'What's that?' I'd never heard of PCOS before. And it's a disease, it's not curable, it can be dormant, that's — at this stage — that's what they know," she said. "And the most frustrating part about this is that it's fairly easy to diagnose. And really what it is, it's a hormone imbalance, it's a hormone disease and it's so easy to see because your testosterone or your estrogen will be really high, you'll have really low vitamin D levels, you'll be deficient in a lot of things."
"You won't have a regular period, but the catch is, a lot of other things look different, so every woman, everyone has a different experience with it. It could be your period, it could be weird hair growth, it could be major gastro issues, it could be crazy cysts on your ovaries, it could be weight gain,” she added. “I had a lot of those outward symptoms that everyone could see."
Pieterse admitted that “so sad to me” that so many women don’t even know they have PCOS, which she said is “detrimental” when undiagnosed. She’s been speaking out more about her experience in hopes of helping other women say on top of their health.
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The former Pretty Little Liars star previously spoke to PEOPLE about her PCOS journey and how she and husband Hudson Sheaffer were "obviously concerned" about the condition affecting their ability to conceive.
"Just the fact that we were able to get pregnant was such a blessing because with PCOS that made me nervous," she said back in 2020. "A lot of women have infertility issues and so we were expecting more difficulty, so it's been an absolute blessing that we were able to just get pregnant by ourselves."
Pieterse admitted that her pregnancy with son Hendrix Wade actually helped her PCOS.
"My hormones have been balancing out, so it's actually been a good thing [in that regard]," she told PEOPLE at the time. "And I'm hoping that this will maybe even help in the future too."
"I've heard some really amazing stories about how pregnancy can actually help with symptoms of PCOS afterward, which would be amazing, but we're taking it one step at a time and just thankful that we're both healthy," she added.
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