When it comes to her health journey, Sasha Pieterse leaves no secrets unturned. During her teenage years, while she portrayed the enigmatic "it girl" Alison DiLaurentis in the ABC mystery drama Pretty Little Liars, she was silently grappling with a plethora of challenging symptoms behind the scenes. "I found myself struggling with something inexplicable," Sasha reveals in an exclusive clip from the SHE MD podcast's Aug. 19 episode, featured on E! News. "I had also recently been diagnosed with epilepsy, a condition unknown to the public until very recently. I was contending with seizures without any discernible cause, and my weight began to climb uncontrollably."
Despite having irregular menstrual cycles since the age of ten, Sasha had always harbored the hope that they would normalize over time. Alas, this never materialized. "I embarked on Pretty Little Liars at 12," she reflects in the podcast, which goes live every Tuesday morning. "By 17, I had gained 70 pounds and was silently battling seizures, irregular periods, acne, and hair loss, all while portraying an 'it girl' on television."
Determined to uncover the root of her woes, Sasha sought the expertise of numerous physicians. "I consulted 17 different gynecologists," she adds. "They uniformly attributed my weight gain to excessive eating or insufficient exercise, despite my adherence to a healthy lifestyle. It was as if I needed to turn green by consuming more salads to be believed."
Despite multiple doctors scapegoating her lifestyle choices for her weight gain, Sasha—mother to four-year-old Hendrix Wade Shaeffer with her husband Hudson Sheaffer—eventually received a diagnosis of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). "Receiving the diagnosis was incredibly validating. It assured me that I wasn't losing my mind; there was a tangible issue at play. Now, I had a label," she shares. "I knew there were measures I could undertake to regulate it and move forward."
Upon sharing her narrative, the Image of You actress swiftly realized she wasn't the sole woman enduring the silent suffering of PCOS symptoms. "It's undeniably a silent epidemic," she observes. "The more you discuss it, the stronger a community you forge. And you comprehend that you're not alone, which is immensely significant."
Indeed, nearly a decade spent searching for answers to her mysterious symptoms took a heavy toll on her mental well-being, particularly during her teenage years under public scrutiny. "I resorted to fasting," she confesses. "I experienced bouts of depression. I struggled with body dysmorphia and disordered eating, yet these behaviors failed to alter my appearance; if anything, they exacerbated it."
"I was told I was crazy or doing something wrong countless times," she adds. "Yet, I persistently advocated for myself, and that is how I ultimately secured an answer."
