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Former Pretty Little Liars<\/i><\/a> star Sasha Pieterse<\/b> opened up about her PCOS-related weight gain<\/a>, revealing that she gained 70 pounds as a teenager while filming the hit Freeform series.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I turned, it was probably around 15, 16, I started noticing a difference in just my metabolism in general,\u201d Sasha, 27, told Twilight<\/i><\/a> alum Taylor Lautner <\/b><\/a>and his wife, Taylor Lautner<\/b><\/a> (n\u00e9e Dome), during an appearance on their podcast, \u201cThe Squeeze,\u201d on Wednesday, August 9. \u201cAt 17, I gained 70 pounds in the year for no reason. There was no explanation for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Sasha then explained that she \u201cnever had a regular period\u201d and, despite speaking up about her symptoms, she was \u201calways just told by gynecologists that [she] was just young. Like, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, it\u2019ll regulate.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was the most frustrating experience and disheartening because, no matter what I did, no matter how well I behaved, no matter how great I treated my body, things were actually getting worse rather than better,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt was very, very confusing. So, after a long process, someone recommended that I go to an endocrinologist.\u201d<\/p>\n Upon visiting a specialist, Sasha was diagnosed with the condition, and she remembered thinking that she had \u201cnever heard of PCOS before.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s a disease, it\u2019s not curable, it can be dormant,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd the most frustrating part about this is that it\u2019s fairly easy to diagnose. It\u2019s a hormone imbalance. It\u2019s a hormone disease, and it\u2019s so easy to see because your testosterone or your estrogen will be really high, you\u2019ll have really low vitamin D levels, you\u2019ll be deficient in a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n PCOS \u2014 polycystic ovary syndrome \u2014 is a hormonal disorder that causes enlarged ovaries and cysts in a woman, according to Mayo Clinic<\/a>. Symptoms include irregular menstruation, excess facial and\/or body hair from high levels of androgen and weight gain. The condition can also lead to infertility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou won\u2019t have a regular period, but the catch is, a lot of other things look different,\u201d Sasha continued when defining PCOS. \u201cSo, every woman 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. I had a lot of those outward symptoms that everyone could see.\u201d<\/p>\n While reflecting on the \u201chealth issues\u201d that she was \u201cspeaking of while going through Pretty Little Liars,<\/i>\u201d Sasha noted that her physical changes from the hormonal disorder played out during her time working on the drama show.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe changes that were happening to me were documented on camera,\u201d she concluded.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sasha portrayed the main teenage bully Alison DiLaurentis on PLL<\/i>. The South Africa native was cast in the role at just 13 years old. She starred on the show from 2010 through 2017 and reprised her role for the PLL<\/i> spinoff, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists <\/i>in 2019. Since the, Sasha welcomed her son, Hendrix, with husband Hudson Sheaffer<\/b>. The couple married in May 2018.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t the first time that Sasha has gotten candid about her health. Previously, she emphasized how difficult it was for her to receive the proper diagnosis during a video interview with theSkimm<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think about how many women could have prevented this if they only knew what was going on their body and had someone listen to them and not think that they were going crazy, it\u2019s so sad,\u201d Sasha said at the time. \u201cI have felt so much freer explaining my story and what has been going on. And so, I highly encourage you to do the same.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n