"I am vehemently against the idea of other kids getting birthday presents on a child's birthday.”
Emma Chamberlain is opening up about her journey with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
In a video sharing her beauty secrets, uploaded by Vogue, the 23-year-old YouTube star revealed the moment she learned she might have PCOS — ultimately leading to her diagnosis.
And it all started at a hair salon.
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“I was sitting in the chair getting my hair washed and a woman was next to me and she turned to me and she said, 'Do you have PCOS'?" Chamberlain recalled in the video, per People.
After explaining to the woman that her mother was diagnosed with PCOS, the woman doubled down.
“I think you have PCOS,” Chamberlain remembers the woman saying. "Turns out she was an OBGYN and she diagnosed me with PCOS."
"It's really changed my life, to be honest,” she said of the unexpected interaction.
Since being put on medication, Chamberlain says her skin is clearer and more predictable.
"My periods are so much more chill," she adds in the April 22 video. "My hair is getting thicker. It's just feeling like I'm coming back to myself in a way."
Her comments come a little more than a year after Chamberlain revealed her PCOS diagnosis for the first time during a March 2024 episode of her “Anything Goes” podcast.
At the time, she said her PCOS was the main reason why she had struggled with “irregular periods, cystic acne, anxiety, depression and a slew of other issues,” per People.
She was also worried that it might affect her ability to get pregnant.
"It's common. I know a lot of girls with PCOS and I think I have a milder version of it,” she said on the podcast. “I don't have the cysts, I don't have all of the symptoms of PCOS, but alas, I have it."
"Hopefully, I'll be fertile when I'm ready to have children,” she added.
What is PCOS and what are the symptoms?
Chamberlain’s journey with PCOS is a common one for many women today.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, up to 15% of females of reproductive age are diagnosed with PCOS — with most women being diagnosed in their 20s or 30s.
Yet, many women who have it don’t know it and most doctors find it difficult to treat. So, what is it?
PCOS is a common hormonal disorder that occurs when “small sacs of fluid develop along the outer edge of the ovary,” per Mayo Clinic.
These small sacs, known as follicles, can produce an excess amount of androgens — which often leads to a hormonal imbalance and could disrupt a woman’s menstrual cycle.
But according to Kelsey J. Sherman, MD, a family physician in Colorado, PCOS is more of an insulin problem than anything else.
“When you have PCOS, your body doesn’t process insulin as effectively, so you need more of it,” Sherman said, per the American Medical Association.
“Then the downstream effects of that are really what creates all of the symptoms that patients experience and makes this a really hard condition to live with for many people,” she added.
Some of the most common PCOS symptoms include irregular or missed periods, enlarged ovaries, acne or oily skin, weight gain, excess body hair and infertility, per Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Why is PCOS so hard to diagnose — and treat?
PCOS awareness has grown dramatically in recent years, but there’s still so much doctors know about it.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) regularly underfunds research for PCOS, per NBC News, making it increasingly difficult to diagnose — especially since PCOS symptoms overlap with other conditions.
But even those who are diagnosed don’t have an effective treatment to turn to.
In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to approve a medication for PCOS and a lot of the treatments today are centered around masking PCOS symptoms rather than treating the root causes.
But since there’s no known cure, that’s about all a doctor can do.
“There’s no magic pill,” Tallene Hacatoryan, a registered dietician in California, told NBC News. “There are too many components for there to be a one-size-fits-all treatment.”
That’s why, as doctors and researchers continue their work, women everywhere are turning to each other.
The rise of online communities on social media is giving women with PCOS a safe space to talk about their condition and share what works — and what doesn’t work — when living with PCOS.
And celebrities like Emma Chamberlain sharing their stories is only helping.
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According to People, other stars who have opened up about their own experience with PCOS include Keke Palmer, Lea Michele, Jillian Michaels, Victoria Beckham and Nikki Garcia.
