Padma Lakshmi has lived most of her life in pain, said Jennifer Birn in the Daily Mail (U.K.). The model and Top Chef host would suffer agonizing menstrual cramps every month, leaving her “balled up in bed” for days. “I thought I was just being a wimp,” she says. But the episodes got worse as she got older, even as doctors dismissed them as psychosomatic. “It never feels good to have someone tell you you’re crazy, or you’re making things up,” she says. “Chronic pain is a terrible thing.” Only when a particularly bad episode left her hospitalized at the age of 36 did a specialist figure out she had endometriosis, a uterine disorder. Her relief at being diagnosed was cut short when doctors told her she would never have children. But a year later, Lakshmi was shocked to discover she was pregnant. “It was only after stopping taking birth control—because I was told that I couldn’t conceive—that it happened at all.” Her daughter, Krishna, is now 3, and though Lakshmi is grateful for the “miracle,” she can’t help looking back at all the wasted years of pain. “If I had been diagnosed at 15, 20, or even 30, my life would have been different.”
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