Padma Lakshmi says she 'lost so many jobs' due to 'debilitating' endometriosis

Padma Lakshmi says she lost a significant amount of work due to her battle with endometriosis. Speaking at the 2024 Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston on Wednesday, the Taste the Nation host, 53, spoke candidly about the 'debilitating' pain she went through every month as a result of the condition, which occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus (known as the endometrium) grows outside the uterus, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“Nobody wants to call into work saying, ‘I have my period, I can’t come in,’” the former model and Top Chef host shared. “That was mortifying to me. I lost so many jobs. I didn't do well on some exams. I wasn't there for my family.”

Lakshmi added that her symptoms began when she got her first period at age 13. “I was down in bed, taking fistfuls of pain medication, with a heating pad, hot water bottle and teas, tinctures, you name it,” she said of her painful periods.

Even so, she “didn’t even know” she had endometriosis until she was 36 years old, she said. After getting diagnosed, Lakshmi underwent surgery for the condition.

“I was much better, and I thought, Holy shit, this is the way normal women go about life,” she shared. “It's hard enough to be a woman, and then to be saddled with chronic pain, which is debilitating mentally as well as physically.”

But her relief at finally getting treatment has been mixed with anger at how long it took for her to get a diagnosis. “I should have [had] the surgery when I was 20, not 36,” she explained. “And I had access to good doctors. I had insurance. I even had doctors in my family. But still, I [slipped] through the cracks.”

Lakshmi is far from alone. More than 11% of American women between the ages of 15 and 44 may be affected by endometriosis, according to the Office on Women's Health. The disorder, which commonly involves the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissue lining the pelvis, can cause painful cramping during periods — and possibly during intercourse, urination and bowel movements, according to the Mayo Clinic.

After her surgery, Lakshmi became determined to make sure the generations of women who come after her will have the ability to deal with the problem head-on.

“The only steps I could take for being in so much pain for so long without getting a proper diagnosis is that I can use that experience to hopefully turn it into some power and make sure other women don't [suffer],” she said. To that end, the cookbook author founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America and has served as a visiting scholar at the Center for Gynepathology Research at MIT. “I think, when I die, I'm sure that will probably be my legacy,” she said.

These days, Lakshmi has managed to make plenty of changes in the world of women’s health. Still, she admitted that she “nearly fell off my chair when I heard Biden say the word ‘endometriosis’ at his State of the Union,” referring to the president's initiatives to fund women's health research.

“I was like, damn, wow! Because it's such a hard disease, and it's icky to talk about. No one wants to get up in a room like this and talk about their vagina,” Lakshmi shared. “But I had to do it, and I got really good at it, and we were able to double the funding that our federal government spends researching this illness that, frankly, has the potential to affect half the population.”

Like Lakshmi, several other celebrities have spoken candidly about their battles with endometriosis. Halsey revealed that she underwent multiple surgeries for endometriosis, while Amy Schumer shared in a 2022 episode of the docu-series The Checkup with Dr. Davis Agus that she would “hopefully get a good week a month where I wasn't in pretty significant pain” from the condition. Bindi Irwin underwent surgery for endometriosis in 2023, revealing that she had suffered for 10 years “with insurmountable fatigue, pain and nausea.”