About a week ago, actress Amy Schumer appeared on “The Tonight Show” and then had to endure comments about her appearance. “Thank you all so much for all the opinions about my face! Like all women, I have enjoyed feedback and discussions about my appearance for almost 20 years,” Schumer then wrote ironically on Instagram. She explained that she has the autoimmune disease endometriosis and that she has “some medical and hormonal things” going on in her world but is doing well.
Now the 42-year-old has revealed further details about her health. In US journalist Jessica Yellin’s newsletter “News Not Noise”, Schumer reveals that she was diagnosed with Cushing’s syndrome, triggered by high-dose steroid injections. Symptoms include weight gain and a rounder, fuller face. Anxiety, bone and back pain, fatigue and headaches can also occur.
A doctor who also appears in the newsletter explains that in Cushing’s syndrome the body produces too much of the stress hormone cortisol. Excessive cortisol exposure can be caused by steroid hormone treatment or by a tumor that stimulates the body to produce too much cortisol.
“I feel like a new person,” says Schumer after the diagnosis gave her certainty about her health. “I thought I might not live to see my son grow up. When I found out I had the self-resolving type of Cushing’s and that I was healthy, it was the best news ever can imagine.”
It was a “crazy few weeks” for her and her family, says the actress, who had to take care of the examinations during the press tour for her TV show “Life and Beth”.
By announcing her illness, she also wanted to advocate for women’s health. “The shaming and criticism of our ever-changing bodies is something I have dealt with for a long time […] I so desperately want women to love themselves and fight tirelessly for their own health […] “says Schumer.
