The actress and comedian discusses her painful struggle with the condition in new memoir “I Curse You With Joy.”
Tiffany Haddish is opening up about her hidden pain. Ahead of the actress’ upcoming memoir I Curse You With Joy, she revealed in a new interview with PEOPLE that she’s been dealing with endometriosis (a condition where the endometrium extends outside of the uterus and can result in pelvic pain) for years now.
“I’m pretty sure the devil is real, because the first day of my period, no matter what, the devil goes into overdrive. I feel like my life gets turned upside down,” Haddish told PEOPLE. “I’m like, ‘Am I dying?'”
Endometriosis has caused pain Haddish pain for years, an experience made more difficult because she was initially misdiagnosed with “a dent in my uterus.” But the most painful part of the condition has been its effect on pregnancy, she said. Haddish told PEOPLE that she has had a total of eight miscarriages.
“It’s so f—ing devastating,” she said. “Every time I find out I’m pregnant, I’m like, ‘Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do nothin’. Even if I don’t really want [the baby], I still try to give it a chance.”
So far, nothing’s been able to stop the miscarriages. But now that Haddish has been prescribed hormone medication for her endometriosis, she’s experienced some improvement in her pain.
“The last two months have not been as bad,” she said. “I’ve gone from 11 days [on my period] to four or five, which is kind of normal, so that’s nice.”
I Curse You With Joy hits stores on May 7. The book is Haddish’s second memoir, following The Last Black Unicorn in 2017, but clearly she has new experiences to share.
