'Pretty Little Liars' Star Sasha Pieterse Recalls Gaining 70 Pounds at Age 17 Amid PCOS Struggles

Sasha Pieterse is opening up about her battle with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome aka PCOS.

During a recent podcast appearance, the 27-year-old Pretty Little Liars actress recalled gaining 70 pounds at the age of 17, before doctors finally diagnosed with the hormonal disorder.

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“This is part of the health issues that I was speaking of while I was going through Pretty Little Liars,” Sasha recalled on The Squeeze podcast. “So when I mean it was documented it was like, the changes that were happening to me were documented on camera.”

“When I turned, it was probably around 15-16 [years old], I started noticing a difference in just my metabolism in general,” Sasha recalled.

At the time, Sasha said that doctors weren’t able to give her answers for years despite her ongoing symptoms.

“I never had a regular period ever and I was just always told by gynecologists that I was just young. Like, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll regulate,’” Sasha said.

Sasha went on to say that she visited “over 15 gynecologists,” but some of them blamed her for the weight gain.

“It was the most frustrating experience and disheartening because no matter what I did, no matter how well I behave, no matter how great I treated my body, things were actually getting worse rather than better,” Sasha said. “It was very, very confusing.”

Eventually, Sasha was recommended to an endocrinologist who finally diagnosed her with PCOS.

“I was like what’s that? I’d never heard of PCOS before. And it’s a disease, it’s not curable, it can be dormant,” Sasha said. “And the most frustrating part about this is that it’s fairly easy to diagnose. It’s a hormone imbalance. It’s a hormone disease, and it’s so easy to see because your testosterone or your estrogen will be really high, you’ll have really low vitamin D levels, you’ll be deficient in a lot of things.”

Sasha went on to share that every person has different experiences with PCOS with some experiencing cysts on their ovaries, gastrointestinal issues, changes to hair growth or weight gain.

“You won’t have a regular period, but the catch is, a lot of other things look different, so every woman everyone has a different experience with it. It could be your period, it could be weird hair growth, it could major gastro issues, it could be crazy cysts on your ovaries, it could be weight gain,” Sasha explained. “I had a lot of those outward symptoms that everyone could see.”

Back in 2017, Sasha opened up about first being diagnosed with PCOS and addressed the hateful comments people made about her weight.