Amy Schumer is opening up about a recent health diagnosis after social media users questioned why her face appeared “puffier” during a promo tour for “Life & Beth.”
The comedian and actor revealed that she has Cushing syndrome, a condition caused by having too much of the hormone cortisol in the body for a long time, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Symptoms include a rounded face, a fatty lump between the shoulders, and pink or purple stretch marks on the skin. It can also lead to high blood pressure, bone loss and type 2 diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“While I was doing press on camera for my Hulu show, I was also in MRI machines four hours at a time, having my veins shut down from the amount of blood drawn and thinking I may not be around to see my son grow up,” Schumer said in Friday’s edition of Jessica Yellin’s “News Not Noise” newsletter.
“So finding out I have the kind of Cushing that will just work itself out and I’m healthy was the greatest news imaginable,” she continued.
Schumer, who has opened up in the past about having endometriosis, told Yellin that criticism over her appearance while promoting the new season of her Hulu show helped her realize “something was wrong.”
In a Feb. 15 Instagram post addressing the criticism, Schumer told fans that there were “some medical and hormonal things going on in my world right now but I’m okay.”
“It has been a crazy couple weeks for me and my family.,” the comedian told Yellin. “‘Aside from fears about my health, I also had to be on camera having the internet chime in. But thank God for that. Because that’s how I realized something was wrong. … The internet is undefeated, as they say.”
Treatment for Cushing syndrome focuses on lowering the amount of cortisol in the body and can include surgery, radiation therapy and medication, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Schumer said she wanted to publicly share her diagnosis because she wants to “advocate for women’s health.”
“I want so much for women to love themselves and be relentless when fighting for their own health in a system that usually doesn’t believe them,” she said.
