Lori Harvey Shares Health Struggle That Resulted in Emergency Surgery After Decade of Pain

Lori Harvey has revealed she spent more than a decade battling painful, unexplained symptoms before finally being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis.

On Tuesday, the 28-year-old model and entrepreneur shared her story on an episode of SheMD with Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney after years of having her complaints repeatedly brushed aside by doctors who insisted nothing was wrong.

‘I’ve been so frustrated. I’ve been going to my gynecologist because I’ve just been feeling like something’s off in my body,’ Harvey recalled. ‘But every time I go to her, she’s like, “You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine. Nothing’s wrong.” And I was like, “But I don’t feel fine. I feel like something is just off.”‘

It wasn’t until she visited Dr. Aliabadi, the Los Angeles OB-GYN known for treating A-list patients, that she finally got answers. 

After her first appointment, Dr. Aliabadi identified ‘quite a few things’ that led her to recognize that the star was suffering from PCOS and endometriosis.

When she first met Dr. Aliabadi, the model said she was told her ‘ovaries were so swollen and inflamed’ that it would be ‘impossible’ to get pregnant. 

‘She’ll tell you I was struggling when I came to see her.’ Harvey recalled. ‘Didn’t we have to do an emergency surgery on me like 2 days later? I had like this massive cyst.’

Dr. Aliabadi explained Harvey had an endometrioma, which is a cyst on the ovary caused by endometriosis, which would have ‘destroyed her fertility’ if left untreated. 

With her intervention, Dr. Aliabadi  guaranteed when Harvey is ready to have a baby that she ‘will get pregnant’ on her own and has ‘tons’ of great quality eggs. 

During the interview, Harvey also noted that she is planning to freeze her eggs within the next year as an ‘insurance policy.’ 

PCOS, which goes undiagnosed in upward of 70% of affected women, is a common condition that affects how a woman’s ovaries work. 

For many that are affected, however, there are no outwardly observable signs of PCOS and they are diagnosed by using blood work, ultrasounds, and other evidenced-based measures.

The three main features of PCOS are irregular periods, excess androgen, which may cause physical signs such as excess facial or body hair and polycystic ovaries.

The condition affects around one in 10 American women of childbearing age – and can impact fertility.

Meanwhile, endometriosis occurs when cells in the lining of the uterus are found elsewhere in the body. 

Symptoms include pain, heavy periods and fatigue, as well as a higher risk of infertility, and bowel and bladder problems.

Looking back, Harvey said her symptoms began at 16. 

She described wild weight fluctuations despite a strict workout routine, intense bloating after eating, acne, rosacea and facial hair that left her wondering what was happening to her body.

‘My body’s trying to tell me something, but I’m not getting the answers that I need,’ she said.

Before her diagnoses, she described having ‘most excruciating periods’ and cramps every month that made her feel she ‘needed to go to the hospital.’ 

‘I’m taking 800 milligrams of Ibuprofen. Nothing is working, it’s just debilitating,’ Harvey recalled. ‘They’d be like, “Oh, just take some Tylenol, you’ll be fine.” And I’m like, “There’s no way this is normal.”‘ 

When Dr. Aliabadi told her the pain wasn’t normal, Harvey said, ‘She literally changed my life.’

Aliabadi said Harvey’s story highlights a wider problem in women’s health. 

‘We’re talking about Lori Harvey. That’s what hurts me. That’s why I have you guys come here,’ she explained on the podcast. ‘Because if you cannot get someone to listen to you and diagnose you correctly, do you think other women have a chance? They don’t.’

Harvey added that many of her friends quietly suffer from PCOS as well.

‘So many of my friends struggle with PCOS, and it’s something that none of us were educated on, and we all kind of were just suffering in silence because we didn’t know what it was,’ she said.

Both Harvey and Aliabadi called the conditions a ‘silent epidemic,’ with Harvey likening the experience of repeatedly being dismissed by medical professionals to ‘gaslighting.’

‘As women, it’s so normalized for us to kind of just suffer in silence,’ Harvey said. ‘And when you keep telling these doctors who are supposed to be there to help you, that you don’t feel right and something’s off and they keep telling you, you’re fine. It’s almost like you’re getting gaslit, you know? You start questioning yourself.’

After her diagnosis, Harvey began taking Metformin, a diabetes medication that also helps regulate hormones in PCOS patients, and said the results were dramatic.

‘Completely changed my life,’ she revealed, noting her weight has stabilized, her hormones are balanced and she finally feels like herself.

‘I feel good in my body finally for once,’ Harvey shared. ‘And I feel like what I should have been feeling like at 16. I’ve never felt more at home in my body than I do now.’

Before getting medicated, she admitted that, like many other women, ‘you develop these almost disorders with eating’ and have a ‘weird relationship with food’ and working out. 

‘The one thing that hurts me the most is how when dismissed, PCOS patients start having disordered eating,’ Dr. Aliabadi stated. ‘Why would you have to starve yourself and don’t eat carbs when you’re 14? That’s not fair.’

Aliabadi went on to state: ‘Diet doesn’t work. You’re exercising. You’re killing yourself. And your skinny friend is eating whatever she wants. So, it’s so frustrating. And I always say, if you knock on the doors of these eating disorder centers, a lot of these PCOS patients are sitting behind it.’