Dancing With The Stars Julianne Hough Gives Advise To Women Suffering From Endometriosis

Judge Julianne Hough talked with Parade about endometriosis and how it effected her time on Dancing With The Stars. Wow, I never knew about this.

What was the reaction of your DWTS castmates when you had this episode?

Obviously they were pretty concerned. I think that the great thing about it, though, was that as scared as I was to talk about it, it actually brought a lot of us closer. Even years later, now that I’m judging on the show, people from the crew will be like, “I know you have endometriosis, I think I might have it.” So it’s definitely something that as scary as it was to open up about it, I’m so glad that I did because I know how important it is to be a woman and not be alone in what you’re going through. We want to be understood, not just by our peers but by our doctor, too.

How did your diagnosis affect your career and your day-to-day life?

It affected my life more before I understood it—I didn’t understand how to deal with it. It’s hard to be active sometimes. I’m a dancer, I’m onstage. There will be times where I’ll just say, “I need 10 minutes, guys”. And I don’t feel bad about it. I need to do what’s right for my body. In the past, it was very much like, “Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine,” but I was just totally lying to myself. So now it’s empowering that I don’t have to be this tough cookie anymore. I can just be me.

What advice would you give to a woman who suspects she might have endometriosis but isn’t sure what questions to ask or how to approach her doctor?

She should first talk to the women in her life, whether that was her mom, sisters, friends. And get to a place where she feels comfortable. You can go to meinendo.com to find out what endometriosis looks like. There’s diagrams—I’m very visual, so that helps me a lot—and also using the hashtag #meinendo and telling your story and symptoms and hearing other people’s stories. There’s a community where they feel connected and understood.

Read more at Parade. Also, if you are interested in reading her fashion blog at Instyle.

ETA: You can view a video HERE with Julianne talking on this further. Glamour also has a special feature on this topic. What a beautiful photo here too. Thanks to Lori for the heads up.

ETA2: Tune into a Live Facebook Chat here….