Emma Roberts Opens Up About Why She Decided To Freeze Her Eggs

After years of struggling with painful and debilitating cramps, Emma Roberts was diagnosed with endometriosis, a diagnosis that led her to freeze her eggs in her late 20s. In a new interview with Cosmopolitan, the 29-year-old actress shared that this diagnosis changed her life. "Finally, there was validation that I wasn't being dramatic," she told the magazine. "But by then, it had affected my fertility."

Endometriosis is a chronic and painful inflammatory disease that is caused by the growth of tissue outside of the uterus. More than 11% of women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 44 live with the condition, according to the Office on Women's Health, and studies have shown that there is a well supported association between endometriosis and infertility. While it's not entirely clear how endometriosis causes infertility, it could be for a number of reasons including that the disease physically distorts a woman's pelvic anatomy, according to the Endometriosis Foundation of America.

Roberts, who is currently pregnant with her first child, told Cosmopolitan that she was terrified of freezing her eggs, but it was something she was advised to do. "I was told, 'You should probably freeze your eggs or look into other options,'" she shared with the magazine. And while she described it as a "difficult process," she said talking about it with other women helped her. "When I found out about my fertility, I was kind of stunned," she said in the same interview. "It felt so permanent, and oddly, I felt like I had done something wrong. But I started opening up to other women, and all of a sudden, there was a new world of conversation about endometriosis, infertility, miscarriages, fear of having kids. I was so grateful to find out I was not alone in this. I hadn't done anything 'wrong' at all."

Roberts told Cosmopolitan that she got pregnant when she "stopped thinking" about her endometriosis and infertility. In late August, the Holidate actress confirmed that she was expecting her first child — a baby boy — with her boyfriend Garrett Hedlund, after initial reports of her pregnancy surfaced in May. "Me...and my two favorite guys," she wrote on Instagram along with photos of her, clearly pregnant, and Hedlund. Roberts previously described her pregnancy as "pure witchcraft," noting that it was not planned, which she reiterated in her interview with Cosmopolitan. "This pregnancy has made me realize that the only plan you can have is that there is no plan," she told the magazine.

Although being pregnant during a pandemic might have been a surprise for her, she told Glamour in October, that this time has led her to reflect on her life. "It's definitely caused a lot of introspection, but I think it's been really amazing to sit with myself and turn inward in a way I never have before and be still."