Why Kayla Itsines hid ‘secret’ health battle from millions of fans
She’s amassed an army of dedicated fans detailing her life online, but there was one thing Kayla Itsines was “terrified” to share.
Kayla Itsines is arguably one of Australia’s most famous fitness experts – but despite sharing her lifestyle to inspire and motivate others, she hid a “secret” from her millions of followers for six years.
The health and wellness entrepreneur, who co-created the popular fitness app SWEAT, is among the one in nine Australian women who live with endometriosis, a painful disease that occurs when tissue similar to that which lines the uterus grows outside of the uterus – usually in areas like the ovaries and fallopian tubes as well as on organs such as the bladder, bowel, vagina, and cervix. In several rare cases, it has even been found in the lungs and brain.
Symptoms and severity varies from person to person, but for many it can be crippling – and can also cause infertility.
“I was really self conscious about it and I actually didn’t talk about it at all,” the Adelaide influencer tells news.com.au.
“Because in my mind, it was like, if I don’t have a baby because of this, I will freak out an audience of millions and millions of women all around the world.
“So I kind of wanted to prove to them, which is silly now because I had no one to talk to, but I wanted to prove to them that you could have kids and have endo.”
Itsines, who has since gone on to become a mother to Arna, 4, and Jax, 1, explained the “trauma” of being told it would be “very difficult” to have kids when she was first diagnosed, was the driving force behind her decision to keep her diagnosis quiet.
“I was 18 and the doctor told me to ‘be prepared because people with endometriosis can’t have kids’,” she says.
“It was so weird the way he said it, so very black and white, and I remember walking out into the room where my mum was waiting and I started crying.
“Being told that I might not be able to get pregnant at such a young age terrified me.”
While Itsines had just turned 18 when she was diagnosed, her symptoms began as a young teen, shortly after her period started.
“It started with extremely debilitating period pains and extreme cramping that went down to my knees on both legs,” she explains.
“I also experienced what I now know to be ovarian cysts bursting. I specifically remember in year nine at high school an occasion where I missed a step on the stairs.
“I’m the most co-ordinated person in the whole world, but I had to grab the staircase, as I was doubled over in pain.
“I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I thought it was I had really bad period pains. But I was told later, after my diagnosis, that pain was actually caused by a cyst bursting.”
It was this school ground moment that sparked years of doctors appointments for the Aussie star. Initially she was placed on the contraceptive pill, but said she felt like her pain wasn’t taken seriously by medical experts.
“I remember having a male doctor who brushed off my symptoms and advised me that the best thing to do was to go on the pill to manage ‘bad period pains’,” she recalls.
“But despite me going on the contraceptive medication and ‘running’ the pills so I didn’t have a break, I carried on bleeding.
“The pain was still horrific too, and by the time I was 18, I went to see a gynaecologist who agreed and said ‘you should not be in this much pain’.”
It was only after undergoing laparoscopic surgery – a keyhole procedure used to diagnose and treat endometriosis – that Itsines had answers.
As well as the endometriosis, she was also diagnosed with adenomyosis, which is a gynaecologic condition that causes endometrial tissue in the lining of the uterus to grow into the muscular wall of the uterus.
“I remember saying: ‘Why? I’m so healthy. I don’t drink. I don’t take drugs. I don’t smoke. I have a healthy diet. I eat food from the bloody garden. What do you mean, I don’t understand why I’ve got this,’” she says.
“I was so confused.
“So one thing I learnt was endo doesn’t discriminate, that’s for sure.”
By the time Itsines launched her fitness business in 2015, she was living in constant pain, and she decided to post about her experience with the chronic disease.
“Almost immediately, the comments started rolling in, including a swirl of negative speculation about my fertility,” she says.
“As a vulnerable 24-year-old, the only way I could deal was shutting down and vowing never to talk about my health struggles publicly again.
“The reaction from some people disappointed me, to say the least, but I was able to move forward.”
Discouraged by the reaction, Itsines stuck to her vow and kept her endo struggles to herself as she built up her business and amassed even more millions of followers.
But her decision to hide her endo began to change after welcomed Arna in April 2019, and in 2021 – six years after she initially shared her pain with her followers – she decided to open up about it once again in a candid post on Instagram.
“The reaction from the audience was much more positive, with many saying ‘thank you so much for coming out and saying you have endo’,” she says.
“Many wanted to know how I’d had a baby while living with endometriosis, which I explained for me happened naturally in the first months following a surgical procedure to remove the tissue.”
Patients who aren’t showing any endometriosis lesions after complete excision surgery have a normal chance of conceiving naturally over the course of the next 12 months, according to EndoHealth. But it’s important to note, there are many components to fertility that women might also encounter alongside the endometriosis.
Now 32, Itsines still lives with symptoms of the condition on a daily basis, but is dedicated to speaking out, even recently taking up an ambassador role with Endometriosis Australia.
“My biggest wish is for us to all stop brushing off symptoms,” she says.
“This isn’t just a ‘bad period’, this is so debilitating, it forces you to take time off work or prevents you from going to school.
“Sometimes the pain is so bad I can’t think clearly. That’s not normal and shouldn’t be ignored.
“Even the operation to treat it can be downplayed as ‘just a keyhole procedure’. But I’ve always said I would rather have a caesarean than have that surgery.”
For the popular fitness guru, she’s found some relief in movement, crediting light exercise to helping her manage symptoms.
“Following a low impact exercise plan, such as the Post-Pregnancy Program on the SWEAT app, really helped with my mental health after surgery.”
She’s also recently released Reboot, a book containing a four-week toolkit for anyone looking to rediscover fitness.
“It has heaps of low impact exercises in it as well as recipes that are great for supporting your endo journey.”
Medicare is failing women and it’s About Bloody Time things changed. Around one million suffer from endometriosis. There is no cure. Help is hard to come by and in rural or regional areas, it’s virtually impossible. We are campaigning for longer, Medicare-funded consultations for endometriosis diagnosis and treatment. Read more about the campaign and sign the petition here
About Bloody Time is an editorial campaign by news.com.au that been developed in collaboration with scientists recommended by the Australian Science Media Centre, and with the support of a grant from the Walkley Foundation’s META Public Interest Journalism fund.
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